Women's Dirges

Dirges have a ritual status and therefore are amenable to analytical, sociological, and anthropological research. This genre, usually associated with death, also has a cross‐cultural presence across China, Finland, Ireland, Greece, and India. In India, Sri Lanka, China, and Finland there are other types of lament songs more closely associated with women's suffering. Though dirges are a vocation for women, there are instances of men initiating the process. The emotions expressed through the songs vary according to the age, gender, and caste/class status of the person who has died, and depend on the relationship of the deceased to the mourners. There is also a belief that singing dirges has an otherworldly motive and that the dead person's soul will be appeased. Most importantly, commonsense wisdom comprehends dirges from a social‐psychological perspective. They are seen as catharsis of the self, of those who are grieving, to relieve anxiety and pent‐up tensions through an outlet for repressed feelings.