Paper short abstract:

From some ethnographic observations, I will analyze the dress code used by the deceased Tacuates in their own death rituals. As I will demonstrate, clothing attributed to the deceased reflects their marital status.

Paper long abstract:

In the community of Santa María Zacatepec, Oaxaca, when a tacuate woman dies after being engaged to a man, her body will be dressed during her funeral with her wedding garment. This fact shows that the alliance between her and her future man is sealed since the moment of their engagement. In this sense, the wedding garment becomes an index of their alliance even when the official wedding ceremony has not yet taken place at the time of the death.

In this paper I will analyze this and other ethnographic cases concerning different ethnographic groups of the state of Oaxaca among which the clothing worn during the funerary rituals is directly related to the marital status of the deceased.