In a, we explored the way Akan mourning rituals reflect the culture's ideas about gender and reproduce social patterns.
The second major player is the chief mourner, who is also usually a male. According to the customs and traditions of the Akan , the body of a deceased person belongs to the extended family into which one is born. The extended family decides at a meeting who the chief mourner should be. Women also fulfill the role of professional mourners or wailers. Some Akan lineages engage the services of these wailers to add solemnity to the mortuary rites. At ordinary Akan funerals where they are absent, it is the women who lament and wail during critical stages of the process. Men are culturally discouraged from loud wailing and weeping.