Family, Religion, and Relocations: Arab American Burial Practices

Abstract

Through pioneering research into nineteenth- and twentieth-century Arab American cemeteries, this chapter overlays shifting approaches to burial onto three broad phases of Christian and Muslim Arab immigration to America. Like other immigrants these newcomers buried along denominational lines, whether Catholic, Orthodox Christianity, or Sunni and Shi’a Islam. They also did so in separate sections of extant grounds or later in independent cemeteries as Arab Americans gained communal numbers and means. Looking to the nation’s largest Arab population centers, this chapter traces a rich array of Arab American cemeteries and offers a unique lens to explore communal dynamics among Muslim and Christian Arabs as they intersected with immigration policy, family, socio-economic standing, and a larger sense of rootedness to American society over time.