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This article aims at introducing some explanations on the death rituals or funerals from the anthropological perspective. Some anthropologists like Hertz, van Gennep, and Turner are likely to understand death as the transitional processes from the living world to the world of the dead. In particular, Hertz has emphasized that dying is a slow process of transition from one spiritual state to another. This study also argues that the themes of rebirth, love, sexuality, and fertility as symbols transcending death have been explored by many anthropologists. The combination of themes of death and sexuality or fertility is considered to confront death with emphasis on life. In the Korean society, the themes of both sexuality and death could be found in the liminal period of death rituals around some southern part of islands. This paper concentrates on the importance of symbolism highlighted in the liminal period of funeral rituals. For instance, the liminality of death rituals is highly likely to link the symbolisms of transition, reversal, ambiguous conditions, seclusion, sexuality, and some others.
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