ABSTRACT
This chapter presents case studies from the Karbi and the Khasi Hills that connect mortuary customs to expressions of personhood and identity in indigenous ontologies of Northeast India. In Khasi and Karbi cultures, death rituals and beliefs are processual events that help people become ancestor persons. The second aspect is socio-psychological grieving or coping with the void left by a death. ‘Death’ becomes a communicative resource that forges vital links between the two cosmologies. Footprints of ancestors, for example, can be embedded in the landscape, such as the crest of Sohpetbneng Hill, which is linked to the Khasi origin myth and the ‘children of the seven huts’ (khun u hynniewtrep). These ‘footprints’ lend credence to the oral narrative. Similarly, Slang Abre in the East Garo Hills is known as ‘the land of the dead and abandoned.’ An ethnography of dying and mourning in the Karbi and Khasi Hills is presented through this chapter.
