Table of Contents

List of Maps List of Plates Acknowledgments Note on Isthmus Zapotec Orthography Preface 1. Introduction 2. The First Forty Days 3. Artists of Bread, Flowers, Prayers, and Music 4. Tending to the Dead: Home Altars and Cemeteries 5. Flowers: The Water of Life and of Death 6. The Day of the Dead-Xandu' 7. The Way of the Cross 8. Nabaana Ro: Roman Catholic Liturgy and Zapotec Practice 9. Nabaana Ro: Invitations from the Departed 10. Becoming an Ancestor Epilogue Glossary of Isthmus Zapotec and Spanish Terms References Index

About the Author

Anya Peterson Royce is Chancellor's Professor of Anthropology and of Comparative Literature at Indiana University Bloomington. Her books include Anthropology of the Performing Arts: Artistry, Virtuosity, and Interpretation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective and The Anthropology of Dance.

Reviews

"...[a] well-written anthropological study ... The author's attention to the aesthetic quality of the death-related customs and the inclusion of numerous photographs and eloquent poems by local authors enhance her book." - CHOICE