Resumo:
In modern-day Guyana (formerly British Guiana) residents of the coastal region of the
country are susceptible to other-than-human powers: the spirits of Dutch colonizers,
who claim ownership over the land, especially in areas where sugar plantations once
operated. Regarded as the “masters of the land,” or “boundary masters,” Dutch spirits
demand offerings and the recognition of land rights from their human co-habitants.
Through a description of rituals towards the land performed by members of a heterodox
Hindu sect, the worship of the goddess Kali, this article addresses territorial
sovereignty through the lens of lived and embodied practices of co-habitation between
East Indians and Dutch spirits, giving special attention to the processes of establishing
proprietary rights over the land through such acts as planting trees.
