Paper short abstract:

This paper depicts contemporary trends in African-Surinamese death culture by examining how the supply of commercial services affects the ways living-dead are cared for and remembered, especially how care is materialized under conditions of commercialization and technological/biomedical changes.

Paper long abstract:

Within African-Surinamese death practices ritual experts e.g. dinari play an important role. They prepare the body for the funeral and have a crucial function in guiding relatives in a series of separation rituals. Dinari, organised in associations or fraternities, are rooted in folk religious (Winti), Christian (Moravian) and esoteric (lodges) traditions. Most dinari claim to have spiritual knowledge and can communicate with spirits of the dead. In general they function as mediators between the bereaved and the deceased. Their work aims at purification (both hygienic and symbolic) and has strong religiousspiritual, sociocultural and emotional meanings. Dinari are key actors in 'traditional' Creole death culture, but may also be considered as modern players in a booming funeral industry. Like elsewhere, Surinamese death practices are subject to technological, biomedical developments and progressive commercialization. People indicate that dinari work as a work of charity has turned into a moneymaking business; the associations are exemplary for broader trends in the African-Surinamese death culture and the funeral industry in the capital of Paramaribo. These developments affect the ambivalent attachment between the living and the dead and the ways relatives deal with continuing bonds with the living-dead. The proposed paper, starting from an ethnographic approach of dinari practices, aims to depict contemporary trends in African-Surinamese death culture and examines how the supply of commercial (new) services has an effect on the ways living-dead are being cared for and remembered, especially how care and remembrance is shaped and materialized under conditions of progressive commercialization and technological/biomedical changes.