Dying Badly: Violent Death and Religious Change among the Tohono O'Odham

Abstract

The present work elaborates on the distinction between “good” and “bad” death as conceptualized by the Tohono O'odham (Papago) of southern Arizona.1 Violent mortality rates are correlated and analyzed along side ethnographic description. The recent history (c. 1950 to the present) of death and dying among the O'odham of the Sells Reservation reveals a troubling trend of violent mortality among young adult males. This trend has led to a new religious ideology of death and ritual practice based upon the concept of “good” as opposed to “bad” death. This new ideology and ritual practice is objectified in the construction of roadside death-memorials.