Unofficial Memorial Rites in an Army Unit

Formal military rules specify the rites for soldiers killed while serving in the Israel Defense Force. The military officially forbids the memorialization of individual soldiers by comrades in arms, and there are no formal rituals for expression of bereavement. Informal expressions of bereavement and memorialization of fellow soldiers however, do occur in a combat unit. Further, despite efforts by the military to institute an egalitarian system of burial and mourning, unsanctioned distinctions arise based on the circumstances of death and the position of the deceased in the hierarchy of his unit. Through this informal system of memorialization, the military reduces conflict between hierarchical and egalitarian symbols.