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Practicing Life and Death in the Caribbean 

 

Passages and Afterworlds: Anthropological Perspectives on Death in the Caribbean, edited by 

Maarit Forde and Yanique Hume, 2018. Durham: Duke University Press, ISBN: 978-1-4780-

0014-3 

 

Passages and Afterworlds is a hugely important volume to the study of life and death in 

the circum-Caribbean. While the title and subtitle of the volume indicate a focus on death, the 

authors within the volume think as much about the living, how the living interact with the dead, 

and how the dead interact with the living. Importantly, the authors in this volume helpfully expand 

what is meant, or, indeed, could be meant, by “Caribbean.” This volume brings together groups 

from the Caribbean that are rarely placed in the same collection, which provides an innovative 

approach to Caribbean studies: a region-wide perspective that goes beyond the dominant narrative 

characterization of it as the “Black Atlantic.” The authors seemingly know this as Paul Christopher 

Johnson notes in his essay: there are certain communities, namely, Cuban Santería and Brazilian 

Candomblé, that have received the abundance of attention in Caribbean anthropology. He calls 

them “the stars” (34), and as a result of their stardom, the overwhelming abundance of information 

on the Caribbean focuses on these groups and their adjacent communities. However, this volume 

ambitiously sets out to think about life, death, and the dead in under-considered contexts, such as 

Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago. 

The volume consists of nine chapters, an introduction, and an afterward. The chapters are 

divided into two sections. The first section, “Relations,” considers how the living interact and live 

with the dead, and, conversely, how the dead do the same. Essays here draw attention to Garifuna 

practices of making the dead present (Johnson), the porous boundary between the living and the 

dead in Amerindian communities (Mentore), the role of morality in the formation of ancestors in 



 

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Ndyuka maroon communities in Suriname (van Wetering and van Velzen), how funerary practices, 

such as burial, create and extend kinship ties (Hume), and, lastly, an examination of Haitian 

practices for finding the cause of death beyond biomedicine (Richman). The essays in section two, 

“Transformations,” look instead at how rituals of and for the dead have changed over time and in 

relationship to wider sociopolitical events. Here, for example, the authors consider how the 2010 

earthquake changed Haiti’s relationship with Gede, the lwa of death (Cosentino), how legislation 

and juridical pronouncements affect one’s relationship with the dead (Forde and McNeal, 

respectively), and a personal reflection on death with the Samaaka maroons (Price). The volume 

ends with an afterward by Aisha Khan gathers together themes from the chapters and explores 

“truth” as a conceptual framework in anthropological research. 

As mentioned above, the authors in this volume do not attend to “the stars” of the 

Caribbean. In considering the dark and vast space between the stars, the volume steps out of the 

starlight, as it were, and enters into a treacherous territory of potential and pitfall. Both Forde and 

Khan’s respective Introduction and Afterward do a wonderful job of providing a nuanced summary 

to an innovative and much-needed collection. At the same time, this innovation comes at a cost. 

The rich literature that makes up the history and theory of the Introduction and the Afterward 

cannot equally engage with all the necessary literature. The expected literature, from Frazer to 

Herskovits, from Palmié to Matory, is present. However, the literature required to understand 

Hinduism in the Caribbean, for example, is noticeably missing from these essays. This means that 

the chapters within are placed in a decidedly Black Atlantic cover while simultaneously eschewing 

that description. This only goes to prove the importance of the chapters gathered together here. 

The opportunity exists, then, to think about the Caribbean outside the Black Atlantic framework—

or, at least, not only within such a setting. That is to say, how might we consider the Caribbean as 

the Afro-Asian Pacific, too? Or, as the Indigenous Atlantic? 

In her introduction, Forde ends with a caveat of sorts, suggesting that language is inherently 

limited in its ability to capture something of the rituals contained within the text. She argues that 

a move to consider poetry and visual art would prove to be a powerful ally as we attempt to write 

about experiences and things that are excessively beyond the linguistic. Here some authors stand 

out for their engagement with art, such as Cosentino. However, the text lacks any real engagement 

with these orientations. Indeed, it is only Cosentino’s chapter that broaches this subject and 



 

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approach. Potential, then, exists to consider the rites of Caribbean peoples through photo essays, 

sustained engagements with ritual objects, and poetry.  

There exists another opportunity for an examination of practices of people left out of this 

volume. While the volume sets out to forge new ground, one wonders about the dead in other parts 

of the Caribbean. Noticeably missing from the volume is work on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, 

departmentalized Caribbean islands, or non-sovereign states, like Puerto Rico. How might these 

other places and communities help to fill out the Caribbean? 

The volume comes out of a Wenner-Gren-funded workshop held in Barbados in 2011. The 

essays in this volume point to this in two different ways. At times, it is explicitly stated by the 

authors who say their essay offers “brief thoughts” or say as much in the notes at the end of their 

chapter. Here, the essays usually suffer from a lack of foundation or through-line. That is to say, 

the essays are gathered around a central theme and a loosely structured argument. At other times, 

this is more stylistic of the edited volume. Meaning, the individual authors of the volume 

seemingly write independently of each other, without making reference to the other chapters, or 

how another author’s essay might be helpful for context, reference, or comparison. As such, the 

authors, perhaps unintentionally, perform the Caribbean: the resonance and dissonance of the 

entangled practices.  

Passages and Afterworlds is a timely edited collection of essays that shines light onto 

lesser-known practices in the Caribbean. It will prove to be a useful addition to anthropology, 

religious studies, and Caribbean studies courses as it sheds light on all of these simultaneously and 

individually. By reorienting our attention to other communities and practices within the Caribbean, 

this volume reiterates a centrally important point: the Caribbean has never been one thing. It is the 

site of constant movement and, often violent, combination. Keith E. McNeal’s chapter illustrates 

this well. He opens his chapter by thinking about the confluence of practices at a funeral in 

Trinidad: “Here we have a deceased Christian Indo-Trinidadian whose hybrid funeral is conducted 

at a political party constituency office, Presbyterian Church, and neotraditional Hindu cremation 

site” (200). Not only is it a blurring of boundaries between politics and religion, but also between 

religious communities and practices once thought disparate. Likewise, the volume performs this: 

communities thought to be disparate are gathered here and boundaries begin to blur. 

 

 



 

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Alejandro Escalante is a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His 

dissertation project centers around the assemblages of gender, race, and religion in la fiesta de 

Santiago Apóstol, which is annually held in Loíza, Puerto Rico. 

 

 

 

© 2021 Alejandro Escalante 

 


