Learning death rituals from scratch

The search for meaning and recognition of Hindus on Réunion

Abstract

After holding Catholic funerals for three to four generations, some Reunionese are learning how to perform Hindu death rituals. As French citizens of Indian and other origins in the French overseas department of Réunion, Reunionese Hindus conduct death rituals which reveal a search for meaning on different levels. Death rites can help the bereaved in coping with an irreversible loss, as they can help the deceased’s soul in finding its final resting place. At the same time, death rituals also require Reunionese Hindus to make ritual choices in the context of the island’s religious diversity, which extends to Catholicism and various ancestral religions. The relationship between Reunionese reorientation projects directed at India as a source of ancestral religious knowledge since the 1970s and claims to have Hinduism recognized as a religion by Reunionese society and the French state connects questions about religion and trans-local relations with questions about the making of religious minorities. Combining the material and sensory aspects of death rituals with the discursive level of people’s life stories and organizations provides multi-layered perspectives on the relationships between religion, trans-local processes and social recognition.