Ettu Celebrations of Life: Death Rituals of a Jamaican People

It has been said that the modern world is eroding traditional community values. This study investigated death practices of a rural Jamaican community, the Ettu, across three generations. The Ettu acknowledge the presence and power of the spirit world among the living. Some of their traditions are frowned upon by the younger generations. However, at the time of death traditions come to the fore with all age groups participating. The essence of the Ettu resides in its juxtaposition to a dominant cultural Other. Its presence in the midst of an antagonistic enclave of consumerism and individualism reveals that a collective identity can be sustained and run parallel to the dominant culture, and indeed may provide spaces for reflection and renewal, connections backward and forward. The death practices of the Ettu provided grief support, forgiveness, memory creation, re-memory, closure and reabsorption into community.