Abstract
The paper uses insights from several Social Psychological theories to study the cultural artifacts of the Merry Cemetery (MC) of Săpânţa (Romania). In the first study we have content analysed the epitaphs written on the painted crosses of the MC and the results show that the epitaphs reflect personal as well as social identity (in which individuals are described as members of both the family and the community) and play two important roles for the community members: they serve as a message to the dear ones and as an external memory of the community’s social norms and shared worldview. The second study explored the social representation of the MC in the local community. The results show that the social representation of the MC clusters around three main themes: its symbolic, economic and local identity value. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.