Drawing on research conducted in southern Benin since 2000, this article explores the entanglements between grief, social status and funerals, and accounts for the conditions and the motives of the massive and multifarious investments – inextricably psychic, social and economic – in funerals that can be witnessed locally. I argue that, far from being mere ‘conspicuous consumption’, funeral expenses should be understood as the product of a number of intersecting dynamics, as the lavishness of these events cannot conceal the burden they represent and the anxieties they feed. In fact, filial duties and politics of reputation often entwine to give an existential dimension to these occasions, reinforcing one another to lead social subjects to engage important economic means and to bury their dead ‘at all costs’. In fact, as internalized norms and social pressures finally convince most mourners to organize obsequies beyond their means, the psychic and social tensions of funerals regularly constitute the all too common hidden face of the more commonly reported lavishness.

本文借鉴 2000 年以来在贝宁南部进行的研究，探讨了悲伤、社会地位和葬礼之间的纠葛，并解释了葬礼中大规模和多方面投资的条件和动机——密不可分的心理、社会和经济——在当地见证。我认为，丧葬费远非单纯的“炫耀性消费”，而应被理解为许多交叉动态的产物，因为这些事件的奢侈程度无法掩盖它们所代表的负担和它们助长的焦虑。事实上，孝道责任和名誉政治经常交织在一起，赋予这些场合以存在主义的维度，相互加强，导致社会主体采取重要的经济手段，并“不惜一切代价”埋葬死者。实际上，