How much direct knowledge people have with the past is always in question. Were the feet of my great-grandfather when he was a small boy burned with coals by his slavemaster. His daughter, my grandfather’s sister says so, but could she be wrong? Such other memories of deceased generation come to haunt us in the present, many of which I’ve had to confront with my African American burial project over the years.
Coffin’s Emblem Defies Certainty:
“A study argues that a widely invoked symbol on a colonial-era African coffin uncovered at the African Burial Ground in Manhattan probably does not have African origins at all.”
(Via NYT > Art & Design.)