its own leader and council. However, above the
villages and the lo presides the Granman. The
Granman is regarded as the king of the Saramacca
people. He also functions as a high priest. He
is assisted in his functions by a council of
elders, who act as the formal government of the
Saramacca people.
The Saramacca believe in one supreme god,
Grangado. Grangado is responsible for the cre-
ation of the world, including protective divini-
ties, which may mount the living. Important
spirits include sky spirits, forest spirits, and
snake spirits. Obia, or the power of magic, is
revered and cherished for its ability to protect
one on a daily basis. Ancestral spirits are also
highly regarded. There are special songs for them,
known as Papa songs. Drumming and dancing
are intricate and fundamental parts of Saramacca
religion. A typical battery of sacred drums
includes three specific drums: theApinti, used to
communicate with sky and ancestral spirits; the
Tumao, used for spirits from the forest; and the
Agida, used to facilitate communication with
snake spirits. Those drums are sacred because
they allow the divinities, the ancestors, and the
living to exchange messages. The drums act as
both conveyors and translators of those mes-
sages. In addition to the drums, other instru-
ments are used. Of particular importance in
Saramacca religious music is the rattle. Known
aspemba dote, white clay is commonly spread
over ritualistic and religious items. Again, it
is believed to further facilitate communication
between the world of the living and the world of
the spirits. Dancing takes place while drums are
being beaten, and one may be mounted by a
spirit while dancing to the drums. Bandama and
Awasa are two significant Saramacca dances.
Twins, as in many parts of the African world, are
regarded as sacred. Healing is achieved through
spiritual means and reliance on leaves, plants,
and oils. Finally, each village has a religious
shrine for the divinities and ancestors. At the
entrance of the villages, overhead wooden barri-
ers, called azang, have been erected for
the purpose of protecting the villages from the
assault of evil spirits.
Ama MazamaSee alsoClay; Maroon Communities; Twins
Further Readings
Goines, L. (1975). Africanisms Among the Bush Negroes
of Surinam.The Black Perspective in Music, 3 (1),
40–44.
Herskovits, M., & Herskovits, F. (1936).Suriname Folk
Lore. New York: Columbia University Press.
Price, R. (1975).Saramacca Social Structure:Analysis of
a Maroon Society in Surinam. Rio Piedras: Institute
of Caribbean Studies, University of Puerto Rico.
Price, R. (1976).The Guiana Maroons. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press.
St.-Hilaire, A. (2000). Global Incorporation and Cultural
Survival: The Surinamese Maroons at the Margins of
the World-System.Journal of World-Systems
Research, 6 (1), 102–132. Available at
http://jwsr.ucr.eduSARCOPHAGUS
In general, a sarcophagus is a stone container that
houses either another smaller coffin or a corpse.
The word derives from the Greek wordssarks,
meaning “flesh,” and phagein, meaning “to eat,”
and literally translates as “flesh eating.” It is said
that Herodotus (or Pliny) observed that the stone
used to construct sacrophagi in Troy, in Asia, con-
sumed the flesh of the corpse inside. Hence, all
such structures were referred to as sarcophagi.
However, in ancient Egypt, the word used to des-
ignate the outer stone container for the body is
transliterated asnb‘nkhand translates to “lord of
life,” a reference to Osiris (Ausar) who is the Lord
of Life because of his resurrection after being mur-
dered by Set. Because Osiris represents eternal life,
the nb ‘nkh is designed to protect the body for
eternity, ensure the well-being of the deceased in
the afterlife, and provide a house for the ka. The
glyphs that make up the word “lord of life” are
the basket, the ankh, water, placenta, and a deter-
minative made up of the rectangular outline of the
nb ‘nkh. Another determinative used for nb ‘nkh
is the image of the reclining Osiris.
Osiris recurs as an essential theme in the sym-
bolism, imagery, iconography, and text that appear
on most nb ‘nkh. However, early in Egyptian
history, bodies were flexed and placed on plank
constructions within baskets. Perhaps the glyph of
the basket reflects this early usage. Bodies wereSarcophagus 595