Forgotten Matzevot kevurah — ethnoarchaeological research of the Jewish Cemetery in Gurupá, Pará, Brazil

Abstract

The Jewish Cemetery of Gurupá, in Pará, Brazil, was used as the burial ground for the local Jewish community between the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. Having established commercial enterprises in the region during the Amazon Rubber Boom, the community collapsed along with that market in the early 1900s. After that, immigration of most practicing Jewish families and the conversion of the remaining ones to Christianism led to the abandonment of the space. The meaning of its headstones was lost as the Hebraic speaking elderly died. The main objective of this study was the recovery of information on the cemetery and on the community it served. This work consisted of the cleaning of the space and the tombs, data collection and translation of the dedications on the headstones; graphic and photographic register of the space and collection of the oral history of the place among people living in Gurupá. Main results included new data on the Funerary Anthropology of this community and their struggle to keep their traditions in the isolation of the Amazon jungle.