Grave Matters

From: With Good Reason
Series: With Good Reason news features
Length: 02:12

Discovering cultural attitudes about race and class--through burial practices. Read the full description.

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Playing: Grave Matters
From: With Good Reason

Graveyard2_small Discovering cultural attitudes about race and class--through burial practices.

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Piece Description

Transcript

HOST LEDE: LAST MONTH, THE CITY OF RICHMOND REMOVED A PARKING LOT AT THE SITE OF A SLAVE BURIAL GROUND. THE SITE IS SLATED FOR A MEMORIAL. REPORTER KELLEY LIBBY TALKED TO AN EXPERT ABOUT HOW THESE KINDS OF GRAVESITES GET OVERLOOKED.

Kelley: Bernard Means says you can learn a lot about race and class by studying burial practices. Means teaches anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University. He says gravesites reflect cultural norms.

Bernard: The dead don’t bury themselves. They’re buried by other people. And when you bury your dead, you’re trying to send a message. It might be a very personal, a very intimate message, or you might be trying to communicate to the community.

Kelley: Means says consider burials on 18th and 19th century plantations. The graves of plantation owners and their families are most often marked with inscribed headstones. But slaves were often buried without mar...
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