The Dead

Continuing the topic of the dead, it has been a week filled with activities centered around the death of one village Basia. He was a senior figure in the village, despite apparently living in the city (not sure exactly how that works or if my details are even correct) and so it was a tremendous ceremony - many people have not slept for at least 3 nights. Well, there is a lot of napping here and there, but no formal sleep.

My health is doing alright, various issues continuing to improve and despite some other minor things now and then I am doing pretty well, but sleep is precious so I haven't stayed up to late for most of this. It's tiring, here! But I have been very involved during the days and that has been wonderful - the village has really gone out of their way to include me and let me get a front row seat and even take part.

First, we went to the airstrip in a village about 45 minutes upriver. The body, now about a week old, was flown in and we retrieved it and carried it back to Piki See with us. On the way, however, we stopped and transferred the body from the city coffin to a simple curved board made from a single piece of a giant tree, covered in banana leaves and kosus. The body was wrapped, but they were careful to leave the face and feet exposed. I don't know why, but this was maintained throughout the many wrappings and transfers of the various ceremonies so it must be significant.

We then took the now semi-exposed body the rest of the way to the village. We brought the body to a grove of trees tucked just outside the main ceremonial entry point to the village. This part of the ceremony was referred to as washing the dead, and it was a literal washing. We removed the wrappings and a woman came forward to wash the dead Basia. He was wearing nothing but a kosu wrapped around his waist and she washed every bit of exposed skin with an herbal potion.

When she was done, the body was again wrapped in several sheets and placed on the ceremonial

bearing board. Now, we began to bear the body into the village. I don't fully understand this portion, but it is customary that you must ask permission to bring the dead into the village and that the elders do not grant this easily. In fact, the more important the dead person is the more they refuse. So over a dozen times, the men carrying the dead Basia on their heads where phsyically blocked from entering the village when they tried to pass through the spirit gate.

Finally, we were allowed in and we carried the body to the sacred square. There, the body was wrapped in dozens or even hundreds of Kosus, until he was at least twice the size of a person. It was almost like an Egyption sarcophagus, though again they made sure to leave feet and face exposed.

After this, we washed our hands and faces in rum and then everyone ran to the river and jumped in, wearing all of our clothes. We washed ourselves and our clothes and that was the end of day 1 - that night most people stayed up the night to break the day, but I did not.

The next day, we made the coffin. The men came together to build the coffin, while the women made mountains of food. The women made fresh rice (just cut and beaten that day) and many other dishes and, after the coffin was complete, we gathered in one of the community halls to eat. I was invited to sit with the Captains and Basias, so I was in the center and in great place to get good food!

It was a very confusing ceremony. In some way, I think they were calling certain people up to take food, but at the same time anyone in the VIP seats (which included me) seemed to be getting up to grab whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. Bottles of pop, rum, food, cake, whatever it was. Eventually, it broke down and everyone else came into eat too and people started taking things to go home with them instead of just to eat or drink there.

I ate and drank well, but the lesson was definitely to not be shy. Similar to the ceremony of Throwing Away Things it was raucous and a bit rude by American standards, but fun and feast like in a very family kind of way.

Today, supposedly some men will dig the grave and carry the body there. I think I was invited

to this, but it wasn't entirely clear and I have been told that this is not something most people (even most Saramaccans) are generally welcomed too so I'm not sure. I have not gone out of my way to make it happen today and, as it is now late afternoon, I think I may have missed this part of the ritual. I am interested to se that, but we've got plenty of time and, really, two days of dead ceremonies was enough. Today was a good day to catch up here.

I hope all of you are living well and whatnot wherever you are. I miss you! Drop me a line!