The work “The Living and the Dead” is devoted to the study of the symbolic life of modern society. Warner shows how symbolism permeates the entire life of modern man, from his communication with the world of the sacred in religion and ending with such exclusively secular forms as the political campaign for the election of a city mayor and ceremonial events on the occasion of national holidays. A separate chapter is devoted to religious symbolism, manifested in various spheres of public life: symbols of gender, status and power. The nature and types of symbolic systems are explored, the mechanisms of meaning and symbolization are analyzed. The outstanding American sociologist E. Goffman called this book “the best description of everyday rituals in modern communities.”