The practice of funeral rites has existed for more than one hundred thousand years. These rites have many social functions, particularly that of erecting a social construct between death and the living, between death and society. Many authors from the social sciences have discussed the recent major changes in funeral rites throughout the Western world, and have suggested either deritualization or the creation of new funeral rites. Through an examination of writings on funeral rites in both traditional and modern societies, we propose a synthesis of the actual state of knowledge about the nature of funeral rites in these societies. We then put forward a number of hypotheses in order to verify if the changes now apparent in postmodern society suggest a change in the very nature of these rites.