Burial societies in Botswana provide financial reliefto bereaved households. Over the last
three decades of econoniic developnient in Botswana people have been exposed to new
sources of vulnerability, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic. A burial society is a relatively
autonomous, historically distinct local niutual.aid institution which may be occupational or
gender based, whose goal is to provide social relief and support to a member or members'
familylkin experiencing distress due to death. Burial societies' practices are built around .'
some basic shared framework of meanings, norms, values or symbols. About 90% of members are women and the members have various religious beliefs. In the burial
societies these are amalgamated in to a form of 'civil ecumenism,' born out of a particular
experience of living with the dead and dying.