Becoming an Ancestor: The Isthmus Zapotec Way of Death

Plates

Contents List of Maps ix List of Plates xi Acknowledgments xv Note on Isthmus Zapotec Orthography xxi Preface xxiii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 The First Forty Days 25 Chapter 3 Artists of Bread, Flowers, Prayers, and Music 53 Chapter 4 Tending to the Dead: Home Altars and Cemeteries 73 Chapter 5 Flowers: The Water of Life and of Death 99 Chapter 6 The Day of the Dead—Xandu’ 115 Chapter 7 The Way of the Cross 137 viii CONTENTS Chapter 8 Nabaana Ro: Roman Catholic Liturgy and Zapotec Practice 147 Chapter 9 Nabaana Ro: Invitations from the Departed 179 Chapter 10 Becoming an Ancestor 199 Epilogue 209 Glossary of Isthmus Zapotec and Spanish Terms 211 References 217 Index 221 Maps Map 1 The Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Map by Ronald R. Royce xx Map 2 The city of Juchitán showing the two main cemeteries and the eight sections. Map by Ronald R. Royce. xxiv ix ...