THE DUGU RITUAL OF THE GARINAGU OF BELIZE: REINFORCING VALUES OF SOCIETY THROUGH MUSIC AND SPIRIT POSSESSION.

This article examines the relationship between music and the spirit realm of the Garinagu (people of African and Amerindian descent) of Belize as displayed in adugurahani ("Feasting the Dead"), a three- or four-day ritual to appease neglected ancestor spirits (Cayetano and Cayetano 1990, 78). This ritual is commonly known as dugu. This examination of dugu is based on the hypothesis that music is a mediating agent that connects people and their ancestors for the purpose of maintaining family solidarity and reinforcing traditional norms and values of society. The objective here is to show how spirit possession and music are used to reinforce social values during an ancestor placation ritual.

Language,(1) music, and spirituality in ritual expression are essential components of culture and society. The maintenance and retention of these components affect processes of enculturation and preservation of social values. Ritual participants believe that without singing, drumming, and rattling, dugu--the most salient ancestor propitiation rite of the Garinagu--could not be performed. Furthermore, they believe that without the ritual, the culture--as it is known today--would cease to exist. To better understand and interpret how music and ancestor spirit possession in this rite reinforce social values, concepts concerning the reorientation of time, cultural relativism, and consanguineous descent are discussed. Western philosophies such as hermeneutics (the science of interpretation) and phenomenology (the descriptive philosophy of experience) are particularly applicable to this study. Steven Friedson (1996, 2) stated that "doing phenomenology ... requires a reflexive engagement with the things themselves [the music and its practitioners]" and suggested that dialectics--interactions and transactions between the researcher and researched--is of significance in doing ethnology. Reflexivity and dialectics were important to the collection and interpretation of data concerning dugu. Data for the study are based in part on fieldwork conducted during the summer of 1996 in Dangriga, Belize. Because of the personal nature of the subject matter (ancestor spirit possession in the context of family gatherings), pseudonyms are used to protect the anonymity of most informants.(2)

Garifuna History and Ancestor Ritual Practices

The Garinagu (commonly known as the Garifuna) are people of Amerindian and West African descent who live along the coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua and share a common origin, language, music, and system of ancestor placation. They are the product of genetic mixture and cultural syncretization between Amerindians (the Carib, Arawak, and Taino peoples) on the island of St. Vincent in the Lesser Antilles and West Africans (believed to be of Yoruba, Ibo, and Ashanti descent) who were brought to the New World to be enslaved in 1635 (Cayetano 1990b, 32).(3) Scholars also suggest that the Garinagu on St. Vincent were frequently augmented by runaway slaves from nearby islands from ethnic groups that include the Efik and Yoruba (Coelho 1955, 6-8) and the Ashanti-Fanti, the Fon, and the Congo (Bastide 1971, 77). In 1796, the Garinagu were defeated in battle by the British and the following year deported to Roatan Island near the coast of Honduras. Beginning in 1802, Garinagu in Honduras made numerous landings on the coast of Belize (Cayetano 1990b, 43). On November 19, 1832, following massacres and civil unrest in Honduras, a large number of Garinagu landed in what is now Dangriga, Belize. Today, November 19 is recognized annually as Garifuna Settlement Day and is celebrated as a national holiday.

Adugurahani, commonly known as dugu, is a ritual for the extended family that consists of both the living and the spirits of their deceased relatives. It is based in part on the Island Carib belief "that departed relations [ancestors] were secret spectators of their [the Island Carib's] conduct; that they still sympathized in their sufferings, and participated in their welfare" (Bryan Edwards quoted in Kerns 1983, 31). This belief is shared by many West African cultures and is the premise upon which all rituals of ancestor veneration are based. Jerris Valentine, Garifuna drummer, song leader, and Anglican priest, stated the following concerning the purpose of dugu:

   The Garifuna believes that whatever evil befalls him, it is a result of an
   evil he himself has committed. A Dugu becomes necessary when the evil
   becomes status quo. The Dugu seeks to repair damaged relationships. Damaged
   relationships have direct bearing on illness, bad-luck and even death....
   When there is a rupture in the family relationship, its effects are felt
   throughout the family structure, even to Seiri--the home of the dead and
   the seat of God. It is when the living cannot or will not find a solution
   to correct the bad situation that the dead ancestors intervene. It is
   through the intervention of the dead PARENTS that evil visits the
   living.... It is during a Dugu that relationships are revealed; family
   members who have not spoken to each other for many years must now "Bury the
   Hatchet" as there are more important concerns at hand. (Valentine 1993,
   13-15)

These indigenous beliefs form the basis for dugu, a ritual whose primary purpose is to heal family members of physical ailments and emotional strife while promoting solidarity.

When family members become ill and cannot be cured by conventional medicine or are victims of inexplicable, near-fatal accidents, a buyei (shaman, herbalist, and traditional spiritualist) is consulted to determine the cause of the misfortune. With the assistance of his or her spirit-helpers (hiuruha), the buyei conducts an invocation ceremony (arairaguni) in the local Garifuna ancestral temple. During this rite, the ancestor-spirit(s) request(s) that a dugu or chugu (a two-day ancestor propitiation rite) be given in his or her honor. The ritual is often deemed necessary when generation after generation of offspring fail to offer the ritual to the requesting ancestor(s).

Families begin preparing for the ritual at least a year before it is to be performed. This long preparation time is necessary so that (1) financial contributions can be collected from relatives living outside Belize; (2) sacrificial animals can be raised; and (3) food supplies can be gathered, including the planting and growing of cassava to make cassava bread (ereba) for the ancestor meal. This process also gives relatives residing in Guatemala, Honduras, United States, and other countries ample time to make travel arrangements to attend the ritual.

Illness and misfortune continue until the living acknowledge the ancestors as the source of these occurrences and comply with their wishes.

   The healing of the family begins with the lengthy preparation--sometimes
   years for a Dugu. By the time the actual date for a Dugu arrives, it is not
   uncommon for the physical healing of the infirmed to have taken place. It
   is also not uncommon for death to occur when there is resistance and lack
   of cooperation. Unexplained deaths from one generation to the next are
   sometimes attributed to "stiff-necked" family members who refuse to be a
   part of the Ancestral Rituals. (Valentine 1993, 15)

If the dugu is deemed a success by the ancestor-spirit(s) and shaman, participants express feelings of good health and freedom from fear of frequent misfortunes. If not, it must be repeated at a later date.

Gender, Possession, and Music as Mediator

Gender is important in the processes of music making and spirit possession. Men traditionally play the segunda (a large single-headed membranophone, a bass drum), and women do most of the singing and dancing. Although spirit possession (onwehani) may happen in nonritual settings, it most frequently occurs as women, the vast majority of ritual participants, sing and dance. Male and female informants agree that women experience possession more often than men because they are "lighter," spiritually less resistant to the advances of ancestor spirits. Garinagu traditionally believe that women are simply more interested in indigenous religious rites associated with the ancestor temple. This belief may attribute to the paucity of male participation in dugu.

The theurgical function of dugu music, "music for supernatural communication" (Olsen 1996, xxi), is best understood by examining melodic, rhythmic, and textual components of specific ritual songs. Therefore, attention is now focused on brief musical and interpretive analyses of the following: "Diseti nageira buwanei" (My birthplace is far away from you), a song given to the living during a dream; and amalihani, a song and dance that is the central rite of veneration to ancestors. All songs(4) discussed in this study were performed during the Rodriguez family dugu held July 11-17, 1996, in Dangriga, Belize.

The first song, "Diseti nageira buwanei," was a newly composed song that was given (icahowaruguti) in a dream to the seventy-eight-year-old matriarch of the family sponsoring the dugu by the spirit of Teresa, her maternal great-grandmother (Cayetano 1974, 7). Songs given in dreams are traditionally performed during chururuti, a thirty- to forty-five-minute period of drumming, singing, dancing, and the occasional playing of rattles. Chururuti is characterized by unison shuffle-step movements in alternating clockwise and counterclockwise movements around the interior of the dabuyaba (the ancestral temple in which the ritual is performed).

The Garifuna song text and English translation shown below are taken from transcriptions of interviews with Lisa Gonzalez, a well-known song leader in Dangriga, and John Mariano. Words in parentheses were provided by Mariano for the purpose of clarification of the meaning of the song. The text reflects the belief that the relatives of the honored ancestor also attend the ritual. It reveals the significance of the Garifuna value of reciprocity and the joy of dancing among family members as the buyei plays his sisira (the traditional gourd rattle containing pebbles that only the buyei and his or her assistant(s) may play during the ritual):

Diseti nageira buwanei

   Diseti nageira buwanei
   - My birthplace is far away from you,
   Turuturina tinya wagei wabu
   - Our traveling vessel has been stopping along with us,
   O diseti nageira buwanei
   - Oh, my birthplace is far away from you,
   Turuturina tinya wagei wabu
   - Our traveling vessel has been stopping along with us,
   Bareina waya tinya wasanigu
   - We are bringing along our children (our offspring),
   Waluwan heinayein Martin tabu Aseluma gayu
   - We are looking for Martin and Aseluma,
   A walu heinayan wamaduduina hamu
   - We are looking for food from you (our offspring),
   A walu heinayan wamaduduina hamu
   - We are looking for food from you,
   A waluwan heinayein Martin tabu Aseluma gayu
   - We are looking for Martin and Aseluma,

   A geinboun bumaragari wouni Juanu
   - Ah, play your maraga for us John,
   A geinboun lonbisisira wouni wabuyeiri
   - Ah, our buyei will play his sisira for us,
   A wadaya bunafana ugunye'
   - Ah, it seems as though we will dance today,
   Hamua bayan gayu hama walawago
   - With our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren,
   Uwadaya gubafuna ugunyene
   - It seems as though we will dance today,
   Ewabina gubafuna(5) ugunyene
   - It seems as though we will dance today,
   A wadaya gubafuna ugunye'
   - It seems as though we will dance today,
   Hamua bayan gayu hama walawago
   - With our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren,

   O dise tinageira buwane ...

Based on an interpretation by the British anthropologist Byron Foster (1994, 42-43), Teresa's reference to the country from which the ancestors have traveled probably refers to Yurumein (the Garifuna word for St. Vincent), to seiri, or to both. Ancestors are believed to travel to the dabuyaba (ancestor temple) for the ritual from places of historical and mythological significance, Yurumein and seiri, respectively. Foster describes the journey to the dabuyaba and suggests that dugu makes possible their transformation from malevolent entities (gubuida) who cause illness and misfortune to their beneficent counterparts (ahari):

   Ancestors arrive at the cult house both from St. Vincent-sairi and from the
   mud floor of the cult house [dabuyaba] itself.... On the one hand, the
   ancestors journey from sairi, the after world of luxuriant manioc gardens,
   and from St. Vincent, the historical ancestral home. The ancestors in this
   merged aspect enter the cult house through the doorways, and are referred
   to as ahari--the dead in their beneficent aspect. On the other hand, they
   are drawn into the cult house from its mud floor; in this aspect the dead
   are gubida--malevolent. We will suggest that dugu transforms the dead from
   their malevolent to their beneficent aspect: from gubida, associated with
   the physical decomposition of the grave site, to ahari, associated with the
   air and with the mythico-historical ancestral home. Exuberant possession at
   dugu signals ancestral joy at this transformation.... The historical
   ancestral home, St. Vincent, thus takes on an aspect of the afterworld--not
   surprisingly, for the period on St. Vincent, being one of autonomy, was the
   Garifuna golden age [a period of 160 years (1635-1795) of successful
   habitation and defense of the island]. On the other hand, then, the
   ancestors journey from a merged St. Vincent-sairi.

Based on this interpretation, a synthesis of myth and history, Yurumein possibly serves as both a place of origin and destination. Some Garinagu, however, expressed the belief that Yurumein and seiri are unrelated entities of Garifuna history and mythology, respectively. During post-fieldwork interviews, John Mariano stated that Saint Vincent and seiri were different places, one real and the other a spiritual site. He also said that dugu songs that identify specific locations or tribes of Garinagu on St. Vincent exist in the repertory today because these songs originated in St. Vincent and have been passed down through generations of Garinagu over the past two hundred years. This may help explain the source of Foster's interpretation in that he also makes reference to a dugu song that includes the word Aurayuna (also spelled Oreyuna), a tribe of Garinagu on St. Vincent.

In this song, the name "Martin" refers to Aseluma's husband, Teresa's son-in-law. The ancestors' request for food indicates that they anticipate partaking of the thanksgiving feast prepared for them at the dugu. After receiving food in the Garifuna temple, the ancestors will dance with their family members. The name "Juan" refers to John Mariano, the buyei. He is instructed to play the rattles so that family members may dance. The Garifuna word maraga, the root of bumaragari, a word in the song text, is an old Garifuna word equivalent to the term sisira. It is no longer used in everyday Garifuna language and is defined as a "large rattle used by a buyei" (Cayetano 1993, 71). It is probably derived from the Spanish term maraca and therefore reflects the influence of the numerous Spanish-speaking cultures in Central America.

The thanksgiving feast, the most significant event of the ritual symbolizes a concept that I call aguriaha-anuriaha, meaning respectively, to "maintain or care for a child" (Mariano 1998) and "providing food for one's dependents" (Palacio 1982, 87, 91). For most Garinagu, aguriaha-anuriaha is not conceived simply as a gesture of thanksgiving but also as a reciprocal obligation that exists between parent and child, including the spirits of the dead and the living. Reciprocity, the principal value advocated in the ritual, is therefore implied in each gesture of aguriaha-anuriaha. For the living, reciprocity begins through obligation, an obligation that is a major impetus for conducting ancestor propitiation rituals. Garifuna linguist E. Roy Cayetano (1974, 13) stated:

   Obligation is mutual along both horizontal and vertical lines. That is to
   say that one has obligations to relatives in one's own generation (e.g.,
   siblings and cousins) as well as those in preceding and succeeding
   generations, and they to him.... The traditionally oriented Carib [a
   Garifuna person] cannot bear to fail in his obligation, ... and failure to
   meet these obligations either through negligence or because the parent or
   ancestor has died give rise to guilt feelings. The propitiation rites would
   thus be seen as the means available for resolving this conflict.

Therefore, the ancestor's requests for food and the playing of the rattle, like the request to have the ritual, are often received as obligatory tasks that the living must perform. During dugu, such requests are expressed through music, the culturally conditioned medium of communication between the ancestors and their offspring.

A transcription of melodic material of "Diseti nageira buwane" is given in Example 1. It includes text and vocal parts as performed by Lisa Gonzalez and her cousin Felicia Narez and recorded on August 19, 1996. Only text and melodic material are given because (1) the recording was made after the dugu when drums were not available and (2) the playing of ritual drums (including the rhythmic motives that accompany dugu songs) is forbidden in nonritual context.

[Example 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Because Garifuna ritual music is traditionally performed in a call-and-response manner between the song leader and the gayusa (chorus), the phrases marked "response" in Example 1 indicate that both vocalists are singing. The form of the song might be described as "reverting" (Olsen 1993, vii), meaning that it is performed in a rondo-like fashion. Section A, notated in Example 1, is made of recurring themes characterized by the repetition of two pitches (d and c), disjunct movement in the form of a leap of a fourth, and descending conjunct movement. The song is notated here in simple triple meter, with vertical dashes indicating implied bar lines.

Although rhythmic accompaniment is not provided, the text clearly implies values esteemed in traditional Garifuna culture. The manner in which the text is performed--repetition through call and response--emphasizes the significance of such values.

Amalihani: The Central Rite of Placation

During amalihani (commonly known as mali), circular processions in the ancestral temple are led by the buyei. The procession moves first in a counterclockwise direction--beginning at the west interior wall of the dabuyaba in front of the entrance to the gule (the buyei's chamber)--and is characterized by moments of silent salutations toward the earth at each cardinal point. The movement of the procession and the singing cease at each of the four cardinal points after the word maniguati is sung. This stop represents a moment of silence in honor of the ancestor for whom the mali is given. Each complete mali consists of two counterclockwise revolutions around the temple followed by a quick direction reversal. The resulting clockwise revolutions include only brief pauses at each cardinal point.

The ancestor for whom the dugu is given receives the largest number of malis. The number of malis given to other ancestors depends on his or her consanguineous relationship to the ancestor for whom the mali is given. The name of the honored ancestor is called before the mali begins. Carol Jenkins and Travis Jenkins (1982, 3) stated that no less than four and as many as thirty mali may be performed at a single ritual. The text for amalihani is as follows:

   Nagutu bamali hounya
   - My grandmother, we are quieting you down.
   Iyayawu bamali hounya, iyayawu, a e.
   - Great-grandmother we are quieting you down,
   great-grand-mother.
   O maho bahurei e o bamali hounya
   - [Unknown text] ... We are quieting you down.
   A nagutu walagayo, iyayawu
   - My grandmother, the cock is crowing, great-grandmother.
   Walagayo iyayawu.
   - The cock is crowing, great-grandmother

   O maho bahurei e o bamali hounya
   Iyayawu bamali hounya, Iyayawu.

   Iyayawu maniguati iyayawu.
   - Great-grandmother, it is silent now (everyone should be
   quiet now), great-grandmother.

   [There is a pause in the singing while the buyei and dangbu
   (drummers) continue to play.]

   [Sung when going to the south entrance of the dabuyaba]:

   Aura buni, amuru nuni, maniguati
   - I am for you, you are for me.

   [Pause in singing as above.]

   [Sung when going from the east to the north]:

   Nagutu wararaga iyayawu
   - Grandmother, water, great-grandmother.

   O maho rei wararaga iyayawu.
   Wararaga iyayawu, maniguati iyayawu a e.
   Nagutu bamali hounya.
   (Mariano and Castillo 1996)

Specific lines of the text are sung as participants process from one cardinal point to another. The value of reciprocity is clearly implied when participants sing Aura buni, amuru nuni ("I am for you, you are for me"). Although the text for amalihani refers to maternal ancestors, malis are also given for paternal ancestors. The text for amalihani and many songs of dugu contain vocables and numerous words no longer used in the spoken language; however, older informants remember the meaning of some of these words.

Example 2 is an excerpt from my transcription of amalihani. It displays the three-part texture used throughout the song, including changes made in basic ostinato patterns played on the segunda beginning in the sixth measure of the example. Primary differences in ostinato patterns occur in the duple subdivision of principal beats and in the use of open strokes (indicated by a small circle) and closed or muted strokes (indicated by an "x") on the drumhead.

[Example 2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Concerning the purpose of mali, Linda Castillo (1996) stated: "Mali is the most sacred part of the dugu. You are trying to simmer the spirits down because sometimes they are kind of mad.... Maybe they have been asking for something. It's like you are [saying], `You'll get it. You'll get it.'" During a study conducted in 1980, Garifuna informants stated that the circular dance "draws the `old ones' in. They are close to us in the circle. The circle is a sign of completeness" (quoted in Wells 1980, 5). These interpretations of the function of circular dance suggest that this formation is a unifying device for all participants, the living as well as the spirits of deceased ancestors. Maria Rodriquez (1996), a twenty-two-year-old woman who frequently experienced possession, stated: "Mali is to calm down the ancestors ... the ones who are mad ... to ease their anger. They see their family members together and they hear the music and they just start to calm down." She referred to herself as the hebu, the medium for the ancestor spirits because of the frequency with which she was possessed.

During mali, possession often begins near the end of the processions, after drummers return to their seats while participants continue to sing and dance. Physical actions of those experiencing possession include dancing with limbs moving freely, experiencing uncontrollable seizure-like convulsions, running wildly throughout the temple, or simply passing out. Numerous informants stated that during possession, the ancestor's personality, vocal inflections, mannerisms, posture, and ways of walking and dancing are expressed through the living.

Music and Possession: Function, Interrelation, and Effectiveness

After observing numerous incidents of onwehani (spirit possession), I began to question informants about the purpose of possession and music. Several older informants stated that ancestor spirits possess nonbelievers to convince them of their power, influence, and constant presence. Incidents of spirit possession I observed during the ritual included (1) a daughter being whipped by the spirits of her mother and grandfather for speaking against the family and not cooperating with the organization of the ritual, (2) an ancestor chastising her son for not sharing the family home with his siblings, and (3) an ancestor informing a relative visiting from Los Angeles that her sick father would not survive (he died two days later). Therefore, onwehani provides a means of communication between the ancestors and their offspring for the purpose of instilling values such as cooperation, sharing, reconciliation, and solidarity.

Music, like possession, is a principal means of reinforcing social values. Song texts, drumming, and rattling are media of communication through which the worlds of the living and the ancestors interact and converse. When asked how music communicates to ancestor spirits during the ritual, buyei John Mariano (1996) replied:

   I think the song texts and the drumming are equally important.... Maybe if
   you use one you don't have much vibration, spiritual or physical vibration.
   If you just sing, you will be happy. You feel good, but when you hear the
   drum you feel better. It's like when you use the drum without the songs,
   you move but you don't get the full essence of it.

According to Byron Foster (1994, 10):

   The rhythm of ... [the] central drum [the lanigi garawoun] is an analogue,
   or symbolic model of the heartbeat and is used together with the spirit
   medium's [the buyei's] gourd rattles to attract the souls of the ancestors
   from the mud floor of the cult house [the ancestor-temple] in which the
   ritual is performed.

Most informants suggested that singing, drumming, and rattling are equally important in encouraging ancestor spirits to participate in the ritual.

After observing the ritual, I concluded that the relationship between music and spirit possession affected the ritual participants because time was reoriented into a two-dimensional phenomenon in which the past coexisted with the present and because participants' responses were in part a product of their cultural conditioning. Music and spirit possession are not only media through which values are reinforced but also means of acknowledging the social significance of descent.

During ancestor spirit possession, the past and present exist as if the diachronic (historical) and synchronic (contemporary) elements of time were occurring simultaneously. Although Jean Houston's (1987, xi) description of "time" (the suspension of circadian time and the prevalence of durative time) is used relative to spiritual or supernatural flights of shamans, it is conceptually applicable to onwehani. When ancestors--as spiritual entities from another realm of existence--possess the bodies of the living, actual time is indeed suspended and durative time takes precedence.

Song text is also two-dimensional in relation to time. Many songs performed during the ritual are first given by ancestors to an offspring as the individual sleeps. The texts of these songs are usually in the first-person (singular or plural) present tense and are often statements or requests from the ancestors. This dialogic nature of song texts implies the simultaneous existence of ritual participants from the past and present.

Because spirit possession may happen at any time during the ritual, cultural conditioning must be considered a possible explanation for why possession may occur with or without music. Gilbert Rouget (1985, 316) believes that music manipulates trance by "socialization" rather than by induction. He advocates that music has no innate communicative power but that cultural conditioning is the determining factor toward inducing trance and possession.

Music and spirit possession in dugu are directly related to the concept of descent. During ancestor veneration rites, the notion of descent implies the denial of time and advocates values such as obedience and authority. Maurice Bloch (1986, 167) tells us that:

   Descent [is] primarily a denial of time through a denial of the relevance
   of death and by implication, birth. Descent here is an image of the true
   social unit, which endures forever.... Descent implies obedience [and]
   honoring the ancestors and the elders.... Ancestors represent authority.

In traditional Garifuna culture, the denial of time represents the denial of the "finality" rather than the "relevance" of death. Therefore, such a denial of time allows for and encourages the existence of an enduring social unit based on the notion of descent. The acknowledgment of descent also suggests respect, honor, obedience to the ancestors, and acceptance of the authority of the ancestors as overseers of their living offspring. Physical, material, and financial blessings received after the ritual are believed to be the rewards of such acknowledgments.

Values and ideals such as honesty, cooperation, family unity, solidarity, and reciprocity are mentioned or directly implied in song texts. They are embedded in the minds and hearts of ritual participants during spirit possession as ancestors chastise or punish the living for being uncooperative, selfish, or disobedient. Ancestors are attracted to the rhythms of drums, the sound of the rattles, and the text and melody of songs, to most of which they danced and sang during their lives. Music is an important medium through which the community of participants, the living and the dead, express social values. Through possession and music, ritual participants are convinced that ancestors and the messages they deliver are to be taken seriously. Because ritual, ancestor spirit possession, and music are accepted and socially sanctioned within each traditional Garifuna community, dugu could be considered a form of social control. However, dugu is spiritually directed and induced as much by entities of the spirit realm as by people. Therefore, as a method of reinforcing morals and values of Garifuna society, dugu shares the same purpose as the ritual practices of most organized religions. As a means of encouraging reciprocity through the parent-child relationship, dugu provides the social and cultural context in which ancestors eat, sing, dance, and continue educating their children in ways of the Garinagu.

(1.) Until 1993, no works had been published by any of the Garinagu people on the structure, syntax, or pronunciation of the Garifuna language. Then, two works containing such orthographic information--a Garifuna-English dictionary by E. Roy Cayetano (1993) and a book of poetry and songs by Marcella Lewis (1994)--were published. Throughout this article, spellings are consistent with those used in the dictionary; contrary spellings are found in quotes. Garifuna is an Amerindian- (primarily Arawak-) based language that consists of a number of loan words from French, Spanish, and English (Cayetano 1990a, 150). The basic pronunciation of most Garifuna words is consistent with those of Castillian Spanish. The only exception is the vowel u. The sound of this vowel is equivalent to the initial vowel sound in the word "soot." Although the Garinagu of Belize, formerly British Honduras, traditionally have Spanish surnames because they are descendents of the Garinagu from Honduras, they do not use diacritical markings in the spelling of their names. Therefore, accents are not used in writing Spanish names and pseudonyms of Garifuna Belizeans in this article. Stress usually falls on the first syllable in two-syllable words and on the second syllable in longer words.

(2.) No pseudonyms are used for informants whose occupations or positions in the community qualify them as public figures. These include John Mariano, the buyei at the ancestral temple in Dangriga, and Linda Castillo, a retired educator who served as my language instructor.

(3.) Evidence suggests that the Garinagu, once called the Black Carib or Califunams, were a mixture of Carib and Africans of the Mandinga culture (Mande-speaking people) of present Mali, who crossed the Atlantic in the early 1300s (Lawrence 1992, 169, 190). Although historical records and retentions in language suggest such an influence, most accounts of the initial encounter between Africans and Amerindians on St. Vincent began in the seventeenth century.

(4.) Songs performed during the ritual--with the exception of uyanu, unaccompanied semisacred gestured songs--are accompanied by three segunda.

(5.) Garifuna songs often contain two or more passages in which the indigenous language differs due to the use of older words and new ones that mean practically the same thing. For example, the phrases "uwadaya gubafuna ..." and "ewabina gubafuna ..." translate as "it seems as though we will dance...." John Mariano (1996) told me that the first word, uwadaya, was an old Garifuna word that is no longer used in daffy conversation; it has been replaced by the word ewabina.

REFERENCES

Bastide, Roger. 1971. African civilizations in the New World. Translated by Peter Green. New York: Harper and Row.

Bloch, Maurice. 1986. From blessing to violence: History and ideology in the circumcision ritual of the Merina of Madagascar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Castillo, Linda. 1996. Interview with the author. Dangriga, Belize, July 12.

Cayetano, E[ldred] Roy. 1974. Song and ritual as a key to understanding black Carib personality. Unpublished manuscript.

--, ed. 1993. The people's Garifuna dictionary. Dangriga, Belize: National Garifuna Council.

Cayetano, Sebastian, ed. 1990a. Garifuna history, language and culture of Belize, Central America, and the Caribbean. Dangriga, Belize: National Garifuna Council.

--. 1990b. The linguistic history of the Garifuna peoples (black Caribs) and surrounding areas in Central America and the Caribbean from 1220 A.D. to the present. In Garifuna history, language and culture of Belize, Central America, and the Caribbean, edited by Sebastian Cayetano, 14-63. Dangriga, Belize: National Garifuna Council.

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Friedson, Steven. 1996. Dancing prophets: Musical experience in Tambuka healing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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OLIVER N. GREENE teaches courses in world music, music history, and applied voice at Morris Brown College and Clayton College and State University in Atlanta. His research interests include the music of indigenous rituals and song-and-dance forms of the Garinagu of Belize. His article on the musics of the various ethnic groups of Belize has been published in the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (1997, vol. 2).3