Grief Beyond the West: Cultural and Communal Approaches to Loss
Much of the grief literature circulated in psychology, counseling, and social work comes from Western, Euro-American researchers. While many of these models aim to describe universal aspects of grief, they are all shaped by the cultural lenses in which they were developed. Grief is a human experience—yet the expressions, meanings, rituals, and community responses to grief vary widely across cultures.
Exploring non-Western and culturally specific grief practices can expand our understanding of what grieving can look like, challenge Western individualism in bereavement, and highlight healing pathways rooted in community, spirituality, and ritual.
Below are three culturally grounded perspectives on grief and mourning, followed by themes that emerge across them.
Indigenous Perspectives (Context: North America)
Important Note: Indigenous communities are not monolithic. Traditions vary between Nations, tribes, and even families. The following are broad themes, drawn with care and humility.
A key resource informing this section is "When the Time Comes: A Guide for End-of-Life Planning for Indigenous People," created by Elders in Saskatoon to support Indigenous families as they navigate death and grief.
Across many Indigenous communities in North America, grief is seen not as a private emotional event, but as a collective experience rooted in community involvement, cultural protocol, and spiritual tradition.
Common elements include:
Guidance from Elders: Elders hold cultural knowledge around protocols for end-of-life, handling belongings, preparing the body, selecting the burial site, and leading ceremonies.
Ceremony and Ritual: Practices may include prayer, song, drumming, smudging, and symbolic offerings.
Collective Grieving: Wakes, communal gatherings, and talking circles allow the entire community to participate in mourning, storytelling, and honoring the life of the person who has passed.
Humor and Storytelling: Sharing stories—including exaggerated or humorous ones—can be an intentional way to release grief, maintain connection, and bring balance during loss.
Key Distinction from Western norms:
While Western grief often places emphasis on personal emotional processing and individual coping, many Indigenous practices embed grief within community responsibility, ritual, and continuity of relationships across generations and the spirit world.
Hindu Grief Rituals
Hindu bereavement traditions vary greatly across regions, sects, and families, yet several widely observed practices help illustrate how grief is understood and ritualized within Hindu culture.
Key features include:
Antyesti ("Last Rites"): The body is ritually washed, blessed, and prepared—typically followed by cremation, symbolizing the soul’s release.
Ritual Mourning Period (10–13 Days): During this time, close family members engage in daily rituals, prayers, and offerings to support the soul’s transition. The period culminates with Terahvin on day 13, marking the end of formal mourning and the family’s return to everyday life.
Spiritual Framing of Death: Death is often understood in the context of reincarnation and karmic journey, which provides a different spiritual narrative of continuity than is common in many Western contexts.
Community Support: Extended family, neighbors, and community members provide food, support, and companionship.
Together, these rituals create a structured pathway through grief, blending spirituality, family responsibility, and community care.
Jewish Mourning Practices
Judaism holds a deeply structured, time-honored approach to grieving, centered on respect for the deceased (kavod ha-met), communal support, and phased mourning.
Key customs include:
Quick Burial: Burial ideally occurs as soon as possible, both to honor the deceased and allow mourners to begin their grief process.
Tahara (Purification): A sacred burial society (Hevra Kadisha) ritually washes and prepares the body, dressing it in simple shrouds as a sign of dignity and equality in death.
Shiva ("Seven"): A seven-day mourning period after burial in which mourners gather at home, receive visitors, share memories, pray, and refrain from typical daily activities. The community brings food, offers comfort, and holds space for grief.
Yahrzeit: The annual remembrance of the death, marked by lighting a 24-hour candle and often saying prayers such as the Mourner’s Kaddish.
Jewish grief traditions emphasize ritual, structure, community presence, and the importance of setting aside dedicated time for mourning.
Shared Threads & Big Takeaways
Though these practices come from distinct cultures, several common themes emerge—many of which contrast with dominant Western grief norms:
Across these cultural traditions, several shared themes emerge that offer a meaningful contrast to dominant Western grief norms. Grief is viewed as a communal experience, with mourning held not only by the immediate family but by the wider community through shared gatherings, support, and participation in rituals. Ritual serves as a container for grief, providing structure, symbolism, and ceremonies that honor the deceased while guiding mourners through emotional and spiritual transition. Many cultures also set aside dedicated time and space for mourning, whether through days, weeks, or annual remembrance practices, reinforcing that grief requires expression rather than avoidance. Finally, spiritual meaning-making plays a central role, with beliefs about the afterlife, ancestral connection, prayer, and storytelling helping communities make sense of loss and maintain bonds with those who have passed.
These perspectives remind us that grief does not have to be navigated alone, silently, or without structure. Community, ritual, and cultural knowledge can hold, guide, and transform grief in ways that Western models do not always capture.
Coming Next: Part 2
In Part 2, we’ll explore additional grief traditions from regions such as East Asia, West Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East—expanding our global understanding of grief even further.