Family Cemeteries of the Upland South as Time Journeys

In this chapter, we examine cemeteries as a time journey, paying specific attention to family cemeteries of the Upland South. Time journeys are immersive experiences, sometimes deliberate and reflective, and often require stocks of knowledge that are often indigenous. Many cemetery customs in the Upland South serve to pass along these stocks of knowledge, are reflective, and facilitate immersive time journeys. We discuss the importance and location of family cemeteries, interment rights, management of family cemeteries, and practices such as Decoration Day, dinner on the ground, grave sweeping, grave mounding, and relocation of family cemeteries. Family cemeteries represent time journeys that are unique compared to most other sources of time journeys. Time spent in the cemetery is time spent with family, whether the time is spent to maintain the cemetery or spent with decedents of the ancestors buried there; it is often time spent in the context of time journey. This is an important part of death culture in the Upland South.