ABSTRACT
Sociologists take seriously the notion that socialization is a reciprocal process continuing across the life course. Infants are socialized by parents, but parents are simultaneously being socialized by the “power of the cry” and other forms of persuasion. Middle-aged parents learn their roles from both children and their own parents by the processes of socialization and role-modeling. Because the dead are often perceived as all-seeing, invisible, powerful, and close to the gods, they may in fact have much greater influence than living agents of socialization. The power of the dead is such that their survivors refuse to remarry, abstain from sexual activity, or even commit suicide. Clearly, the imaginary conversations with others who were once alive constitute an important context of socialization. Sometimes the dead can serve as very powerful negative role models. What might be called the “real zombies” are dead persons who somehow generate or reinforce a suicidal impulse among their survivors.
