a1187: trees on gravesites in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stuart M Leiderman <leidermn@cisunix.unh.edu>


excerpt from <http://www.webarchaeology.com/Html/BrunrSHA.htm>

Levi Jordan Plantation

Hidden Power:
Burial Practices from an African-American Slave and Tenant Community
by David Bruner, 1998

"Trees planted on graves also signify the spirit; their roots literally
journey to the other world. Hence Kongo elders plant trees on graves,
explaining: "This tree is a sign of spirit, on its way to the other
world." The mooring of spirit with trees on graves appears in Southern
Haiti, where the rationale is phrased this way: "Trees live after us,
death is not the end." In the continental United States, at Hazelhurst,
Mississippi, we learn that "at the funeral preachers are given a chance
[???] with their carefully composed sermons. It is then that the evergreen
is planted on the grave. These trees are identified with the departed, and
if the tree flourishes, all is well with the soul: (1983:139).

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Stuiart Leiderman
Environmental Response
leidermn@christa.unh.edu