A comparative historical analysis of mortuary behaviour in different cultures reveals that it is explicable in terms of cyclical change in display ostentation. General principles concerning the dynamics of social competition and display effectiveness explain the frequent lack of equivalence among degrees of status, sentiment, and mortuary ostentation. Case studies of Victorian-tomodern England and historic Northeast Iroquoia illustrate the cycle of expressive elaboration, redundancy, decline, and regulation that develops in a context of competitive mortuary display, and ancient Greece provides additional examples. The cyclical nature of display effectiveness therefore warrants consideration as the backdrop for social and ideological interpretations of mortuary variation.