The Power of the Dead: Changes in the Construction and Care of Graves and Family Vaults on a Small Greek Island

Changes over three decades in ritual practices associated with death and mourning in a Greek Orthodox Christian community on a Cycladic island are described and discussed in the light of a particular pattern of obligations by heirs to perform funerary and other rituals for those from whom property was inherited. A number of changes in ritual practices within the community result from migration and return, and from improved communications between the island and mainland which have brought in tourists and tourist-related enterprises. A particular case, of violent and tragic death, is examined in detail and an analysis made of the construction, decoration and care of the graves of the victims by various categories of relative.