Death in the family revisited: Ritual expression and controversy in a Creole transnational mortuary sphere

Abstract

On the basis of an ethnographic analysis of the ritual process following the sudden death of a Surinamese migrant, this article shows that while the conceptual polarity of death (good versus bad death) might be clear-cut, the morality of death is both bound and unbound in space and time, and relative to the multiple conditions of bereaved relatives involved. Against the background of transnational migration, multi-territorial belonging, and individual self-making, the article explains the crisscrossing morality of death, and how ambiguity is manifested in ritual organization, arguing that mortuary rites express as much controversy and failure as cohesion and closure. Keywords: Suriname, death, mortuary rites, mourning, transnational migrants