in defiance of destiny: the management of time and gender at a Cretan funeral

Greek laments for the dead have occupied a central place in studies of symbolic practice and gender relations. By examining a funeral in detailed context, we can see connections between the personal dilemmas of a young woman in mourning, the symbolic resources on which she draws, and her subsequent pursuit of prestige and emancipation. At the same time, the ambiguities of her performance warn against single‐stranded interpretations and urge deeper exploration of the indeterminacy that it is so hard for ethnographic description to capture. [ indeterminacy, symbolism, gender, lamenting, strategy, Crete, Greece ]