Hmmm, this touches the topic you hate so much, like Jorge the monk in "Name of Rose" hated laughing (heh), Haraldur - religion and spirituality, but giving hail to those who died is first true "religious" action documented in nature (among primal people, and not only).
For example, when an elephant dies, the steed remembers exactly where it happens. It is documented that when elephants pass the place where their fallen comrade lied (even if the body has decayed and bones are gone), they stop for a while, as if the wanted to give respect to this place. They are also known to gather and "mourn" over the dead. Tales are heard about "elephant graveyards", where the bones are gathered, but I've never heard any fact which is evidence to that.
Ants (and some other insects), which is sure this time, are known to create "graveyards" where they gather corpses for all dead community members to decay, but this is rather cosmetic than spiritual - in Hive, dead bodies everyone disrupt the systemical life.
Through I see sense in paying respect to the dead, paying respect to the ones which left the community seems less understandable to me...
