Abstrakt
This paper examines how the introduction of death-related buildings, such as the funeral home in rural Slovakia, alters the ways and frequency of contact with the dead body and, in turn, influences the course and certain aspects of funeral rituals. It presents a case study based on long-term ethnographic research, analysing data collected over three years in a village in the Horehronie region of the Slovak Republic with a predominantly Roman Catholic population. Through analysis of ethnographic data, the study argues that the establishment of the funeral home and the related shift in the space where the body is kept before the funeral changed the course and some elements of funeral rituals. The funeral home not only serves an essential function in the funeral process but can also gradually become a space and symbol associated with the dead, death, and the afterlife; it also embodies and reflects religious beliefs and norms that can shape both collective and individual behaviours and emotional states.