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A Pilgrimage Home

Tombs, Burial and Belonging in Jamaica

University College London, UK

This article is concerned with the construction of ancestry in Jamaica. Based upon a comparison of burial tombs in inalienable, ‘ancestral’ family land as well as in churchyards and cemeteries, I explore how the painted, polished or embellished cement structures mediate the relationship between people and land, a primary locus of identity in the Caribbean. Examining the ways in which the tombs are decorated and augmented, I argue that the creation, design and redesign of the tomb and its facade are important for the declaration of personhood as well as the positioning of the individual within the family. However, ancestral status is ultimately realized through the neglect and disintegration of these surfaces, the exposed grey concrete materially reuniting the deceased with the land.

Key Words: ancestry • burial tombs • the Caribbean • homes • land

Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 9, No. 1, 11-26 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1359183504041087


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