Ethnoarchaeology of Mortuary Practices: Relationship Bodies in the Carib-speaking Neo-Tropics

Résumé

Death is not the end, but rather a beginning. Drawing on historical sources and ethnographic fieldwork with the Wayana Indigenous People of French Guiana, this essay explores the interrelationships embodied during mortuary practices and personal treatment of the dead. This research emerged from questions raised during the archaeological excavations at Anse à la Gourde, Guadeloupe, and, in turn, contributes to the study of burial practices in Caribbean archaeology. More broadly, an understanding of Wayana mortuary practices, illustrated with exceptional photographs and indigenous narratives, is to further the conceptualization of the complexity, wide variety and individualization of personal treatment of the dead, and the interrelationships with ancestors and other social others in Guiana, Amazonia, and beyond.