Throwing Things Away

Saramaccans have a very interesting relationship with the dead. Really, they just have interesting relationships period. I've come at this several different ways already and I'll do it again for a moment. Living in a Saramaccan village is kind of like being in a constant family reunion. Sometimes it's boring and aggravating, sometimes there is too much going on, there's always kids running around underfoot, nothing happens on time, everybody knows each others business, you tell the same story and say the same things about 18 times, there is always food going somewhere, somebody is always happy to see you, and it's sometimes a lot more fun to be a bit of an outsider because you don't have as many ties as the other people. Sometimes it's more awkward too.

And you really can't judge them by American standards. If you do, they are a rude, disrespectful people. They aren't, they just express things very differently. Because they really are all family and they have been living together, in their own little word, since birth and beyond. So please does kind of drop out after 20 years of living next to them and they are your sister in law or cousin by marriage anyway, so let's just not waste time on silly formalities.

But getting back to the dead portion, when somebody dies everyone gets involved because everyone is involved - it's all family. After the Break the Day I posted about before, there was a ceremony roughly called Throwing Away Things. I'm not sure if everything was actually the dead person's or if much of it was donated by the various family clusters involved, but the ceremony was a combination of Halloween and...well as if the entire village were a pinaata. Yeah.

So after some drum playing in the central sacred space, we followed three men with drums around the oldest section of the village. At certain, pre-determined spots they would stop and play the drums for a bit. And then the people in that house and the other main actors of the festivity with start throwing goodies. At first, these were semi-standard goodies. Cookies, matches, soap, and the occasional kosu. But then they started to get crazier. Spoons. Dishes. I got a bowl. Keep in mind all dishes are plastic. Though, actually, they threw the lids of a some glassware and if you caught the lid you could go up and claim the glass bowl. Hammocks were thrown. Calabashes. Forks. Silverware holders. Almost like a Halloween where you ran out of candy but didn't want to disappoint the kids so you just started digging around in the attic.

Of course, it had just rained hugely so there was a lot of mud and a lot of slipping and wrestling for things - most of it good natured. After everything was thrown, two people would fire of shotguns and the crowd would move onto the next house on the circuit. Quite a bit of fun, if a bit violent and mud-splattered.