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Baine, Kéelin Eílise. "Mortuary ritual and social change in neolithic and Bronze Age Ireland." Diss., University of Iowa, 2014. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1427.
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This dissertation research is an archaeological investigation of the burial practices of the Irish Neolithic (4000-2500 BC) and Bronze Age (2500-1100 BC). Burial data from thirty sites are used in order to understand the relationship between the burial treatment of the dead (inhumation vs. cremation), artifact deposition, and faunal deposition with the age and sex of the dead. In order to understand how environmental variability affected the manner in which people constructed their views on identity, the sites were categorized based on two geographic regions, Region A and Region B. Region A refers to sites located in Co. Dublin, Co. Louth, Co. Meath, Co. Kildare, and Co. Wicklow, an area with many sites clustered together on land that was capable of supporting large communities, agricultural surplus, and is geographically located near important long distance trade routes with Britain and continental Europe. Region B refers to the remaining territory of Ireland. The results of the analyses are used to gain information on how burial was used by past populations to reflect social and economic status and how the communal perspective on status changed over time and how the surrounding environment affected the perspective of the people.
Previous research on late prehistoric Irish burials has relied on cultural-historical stereotypes of the past to understand the social and economic trends, lumping all data from Ireland as being the same, and even as the same as burial trends in Britain and continental Europe. Therefore, Neolithic Ireland is assumed to have consisted of egalitarian agricultural-based communities, which transitioned into societies with vertical hierarchy dominated by adult males in the Bronze Age because of the rise of metallurgical practices and long-distance trade (Bradley 2007; Waddell 2010). Typically, research interpretations are generated based on only one line of contextual data, rather than taking into consideration the multiple aspects of burial ritual, and environmental variability amongst sites is not considered a factor in socio-economic influences on burial tradition. This study seeks to demonstrate that by using multiple lines of evidence, regional and local differences of burial tradition can be identified which contradict general stereotypes of both the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
The results of this study show that when multiple lines of evidence from burials are analyzed, general stereotypes of the manner in which socio-economic identity was manifested in the archaeological record during the Neolithic and Bronze Age cannot be applied to Ireland as a whole. Instead, the manner in which individuals are deposited and preserved in burial ritual is governed by isolated local traditions, rather than large, regional traditions. This is the result of regional variability in the environment, the arability of land, and the geographic positioning of sites near long-distance trade routes. This research demonstrates that large-scale explanations of social and economic changes in late prehistory and previous understandings of the role of burial ritual in socio-economic displays of identity need to be questioned and re-examined using more datasets to ensure a more thorough interpretation of the past.
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Klokler, Daniela. "Food for Body and Soul: Mortuary Ritual in Shell Mounds (Laguna - Brazil)." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193697.
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Large, conical mounds known as sambaquis form the contours of prehistoric settlement, resource procurement, and ritual along the southern coast of Brazil. This research examines faunal remains from Jabuticabeira II, a large shell mound exclusively used as a cemetery for approximately 1000 years (between 2500 - 1400 BP). Its complex stratigraphy alternates between dark burial deposits and light, thick layers of shells. Various groups used neighboring burial areas simultaneously, and faunal analysis of these burial deposits suggests that animals, especially fish, played an integral role in feasts performed to honor the dead.Detailed investigation of feast remains from 12 funerary areas indicates recurrent use of the same resources during the events, especially catfish and whitemouth croaker. Mammals and birds were also part of the ritual and were deposited in association with burial pits, especially during the final episode of construction. The remains of feasts were then used to fill the funerary areas and demarcate the domain of the dead. Recurrent depositional episodes of massive amounts of shell valves eventually formed a large mound, and the building materials were carefully selected to emphasize the opposition between interment areas and covering layers.The results primarily indicate strong continuity in the feasts. A dramatic shift in the materials used to build the mound during the final period of its construction does not coincide with a change in the faunal assemblage. Examination of Brazilian ethnography sheds light on several aspects of mortuary ritual and explains the association of features discovered at the site. Feasts incorporated resources accessible to all group members, and reinforced the connection of groups with estuarine landscape. The identification of bounded deposits that can be assigned to specific affinity groups allows studies of the nature of social relationships. This permitted the development of a sampling strategy that targeted social units, a breakthrough approach. The unique access to affinity groups can answer questions about the behavior of these social units and the association of their members.
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Medina-Pettersson, Cecilia Aurora Linnea. "Bronze Age urned cremation burials of Mainland Scotland : mortuary ritual and cremation technology." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/9946.
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Tracing the treatment of the body before, during and after cremation, this thesis aims to reconstruct and theorise the mortuary rituals associated with urned cremation burial in Bronze Age Scotland. It is an attempt to bridge the gap between theoretical perspectives from funerary archaeology and up-to-date methods for understanding heat-related changes to bone from osteoarchaeology and forensic anthropology. As with other types of mortuary treatment, the physical aspects of cremation detected by osteological analysis are interconnected with the meaning and symbolism of the ritual. The research involved the osteological analysis of a sample of urned cremation burials from the collections of The National Museums of Scotland. The analysis aimed to estimate not only the age at death and sex of the remains, but also to investigate factors such as the number of individuals in an urn, the effectiveness of the cremation process, whether the bodies had been cremated as fresh corpses or dry bones, the position of the body on the pyre, the range of pyre goods and the selection of remains included in the urns. In total, 75 urned cremation burials from 50 sites were analysed, a significant addition to the corpus of osteologically analysed Bronze Age urned burials from the Scottish Mainland. The results suggested a significant discrepancy between how fleshed bodies and bodies which had been through the pyre were perceived. Whereas fresh corpses were not modified, the burnt remains could be extensively manipulated until their final deposition within the urn.
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Rainsford, Clare E. "Animals, Identity and Cosmology: Mortuary Practice in Early Medieval Eastern England." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/17224.
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Arts & Humanities Research Council Studentship under the Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme with Norwich Castle Museum as the partner organisation.The full text will be available at the end of the embargo, 18th July 2021
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Foster, Robert John. "Social reproduction and history in Melanesia : mortuary ritual, gift exchange, and custom in the Tanga Islands /." Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37469389v.
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Larsson, Åsa Maria. "Breaking and Making Bodies and Pots : Material and Ritual Practices in Sweden in the Third Millennium BC." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-107370.
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In South Sweden the third millennium BC is characterised by coastal settlements of marine hunter-gatherers known as the Pitted Ware culture, and inland settlements of the Battle Axe culture. This thesis outlines the history of research of the Middle Neolithic B in general and that of the pottery and burial practices in particular. Material culture must be understood as the result of both conscious preferences and embodied practices: technology can be deliberately cultural just as style can be un-selfconscious routine. Anthropological and ethnoarchaeological research into craft and the transmission of learning in traditional societies shows how archaeologists must take into consideration the interdependence of mind and body when interpreting style, technology and change in prehistory. The pottery crafts of the Pitted Ware and Battle Axe cultures were not just fundamentally different technologically, but even more so in the attitudes toward authority, tradition, variation and the social role of the potter in the community. The Battle Axe beakers represent a wholly new chaîne opératoire, probably introduced by a small group of relocated Beaker potters at the beginning of the period. The different attitudes toward living bodies is highlighted further in the attitudes toward the dead bodies. In the mortuary ritual the Battle Axe culture was intent upon the creation and control of a perfect body which acted as a representative of the idealised notion of what it was to belong to the community. This focus upon completeness, continuation and control is echoed in the making of beakers using the ground up remains of old vessels as temper. In contrast, the Pitted Ware culture people broke the bodies of the dead by defleshing, removal of body parts, cremation, sorting, dispersal and/or reburial of the bones on the settlements. The individuality of the living body was destroyed leaving the durable but depersonalised bones to be returned to the joint collective of the ancestors. Just as the bodies were fragmented so were the pots, sherds and bases being deposited in large quantities on the settlements and occasionally in graves. Some of the pots were also tempered with burnt and crushed bones. At the end of the Middle Neolithic the material and human remains show evidence of a growing effort to find a common ground in the two societies through sharing certain mortuary rituals and making beakers with a mix of both traditions, stylistically and technologically.
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King, Sarah S. "What makes war? Assessing Iron Age warfare through mortuary behaviour and osteological patterns of violence." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/5423.
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There is an ongoing debate concerning the nature of warfare and violence in the Iron Age of Britain. Interpretations regarding material remains from this period fluctuate between classifying instruments of violence (i.e. swords, spears, hillforts) as functional tools of war and as ritual symbolic devices. Human skeletal remains provide the most unequivocal evidence for violent encounters, but were often missing from these debates in the past. This thesis addresses this lack of treatment by analyzing the patterns of traumatic injuries at sites from two distinct regions in Iron Age Britain (East Yorkshire and Hampshire).
The human remains from these sites show clear markers of interpersonal violence. When the remains are placed in context with the mortuary treatment, it is evident that violence and ritual were inextricably linked. In East Yorkshire, combat may have been ritualized through duelling and competition performance. In Hampshire, individuals with perimortem injures are often found in special deposits such as pits, ditches and domestic areas, suggesting their use in ritual processes that distinguish them from the general population. This provides a basis for understanding warfare and violence during the Iron Age of Britain and how communities negotiated the social tensions caused by violent interactions.Note: Content of Appendix 2 is not available.
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King, Sarah Suzanne. "What makes war? : assessing Iron Age warfare through mortuary behaviour and osteological patterns of violence." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/5423.
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There is an ongoing debate concerning the nature of warfare and violence in the Iron Age of Britain. Interpretations regarding material remains from this period fluctuate between classifying instruments of violence (i.e. swords, spears, hillforts) as functional tools of war and as ritual symbolic devices. Human skeletal remains provide the most unequivocal evidence for violent encounters, but were often missing from these debates in the past. This thesis addresses this lack of treatment by analyzing the patterns of traumatic injuries at sites from two distinct regions in Iron Age Britain (East Yorkshire and Hampshire). The human remains from these sites show clear markers of interpersonal violence. When the remains are placed in context with the mortuary treatment, it is evident that violence and ritual were inextricably linked. In East Yorkshire, combat may have been ritualized through duelling and competition performance. In Hampshire, individuals with perimortem injures are often found in special deposits such as pits, ditches and domestic areas, suggesting their use in ritual processes that distinguish them from the general population. This provides a basis for understanding warfare and violence during the Iron Age of Britain and how communities negotiated the social tensions caused by violent interactions.
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Hed, Maja. "Death's reflection in the water : Mortuary ritual, ancestral worship and the cosmological significance of water on the island of Gotland during the Pitted Ware culture." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Arkeologi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-446688.
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The Pitted Ware culture on Gotland presents a multitude of material that allow archeologists to re-construct and visit the socio-economic structure of a middle-neolithic settlement in the Baltic sea. I will be analyzing the archaeological material in accordance to the ocean, and to what we can interpret as ritual and cosmological variables at the site through ritual theory, and with a method of comparative analogy and research. How maritime aspects of divinity manifested itself to the PWC, ontology and belief system could perhaps reveal how the cognitive, collective mind of one culture evolved and made connections to otherworldly entities. Often in the form of ancestral worship, which will be one of the main issues that will be analyzed and discussed throughout, in addition to mortuary ritual.Den Gropkeramiska kulturen på Gotland demonstrerar ett extensivt material som tillåter arkeologer att rekonstruera och besöka den socioekonomiska strukturen hos en mellanneolitisk kultur i Östersjön. Jag kommer att analysera materialet i relation till havet, och försöka utgöra havets rituella och kosmologiska kopplingar till lokalen genom ritualteori och en analogisk, komparativ metod. Sättet som maritima aspekter av gudomlighet manifesterade sig inom den Gropkeramiska kulturen på Gotland, dess ontologi och trossystem kan möjligtvis avslöja hur det kollektiva, kognitiva sinnet hos en kultur utvecklades och skapade kontakter till utomvärldsliga ting. Ofta i form av förfädersdyrkan, som tillsammans med begravningsritualer kommer vara ett centralt ämne genom hela uppsatsen.
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Ramalho, Moises. "Os Yanomami e a morte." Universidade de São Paulo, 2008. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8134/tde-04052009-154152/.
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Esta tese tem por objeto a relação dos Yanomami do norte amazônico com a morte, tomada como via privilegiada de aprofundamento de nosso entendimento de seus modos de ser/estar no universo, hutu kara, dizem eles. Descreve seus conceitos de comunidade, cuja existência e funcionamento estão intimamente ligados à máquina ritual-escatológica, delineia os pontos centrais de sua ontologia e de sua noção de pessoa e analisa o ritual mortuário, reahu, propondo ver nele a realização máxima dos mais vários aspectos da cosmologia e da vida social yanomami. Baseada em experiência de campo de uma década, incorpora a vasta literatura dedicada aos Yanomami à luz de fatos observados e, sobretudo, de explicações que me foram dadas por eles ao longo dos anos.This thesis is dedicated to the northern-amazonian Yanomami\'s relation to death, taken as a privileged way of deepening our understandings of their modes of being in the universe, hutu kara, as they say. It describes their concepts of community, whose existence and functioning are intimately related to the ritual-eschatological machine, outlines the main points of their ontology and notion of personhood and analises the mortuary ritual, reahu, proposing to see it as the ultimate realization of the various aspects of yanomami cosmology and social life. Based on fieldwork carried on for more than a decade, it incorporates the vast literature on the Yanomami in the light of observed facts and, above all, of the explanations given to me by them throughout the years.
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Klaus, Haagen D. "Out of Light Came Darkness: Bioarchaeology of Mortuary Ritual, Health, and Ethnogenesis in the Lambayeque Valley Complex, North Coast Peru (AD 900-1750)." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1209498934.
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Souza, Jonas Gregorio de. "Paisagem ritual no planalto meridional brasileiro: complexos de aterros anelares e montículos funerários Jê do Sul em Pinhal da Serra, RS." Universidade de São Paulo, 2012. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/71/71131/tde-18042013-102920/.
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Nesta dissertação são analisados os sítios cerimoniais associados à ocupação Jê do Sul no município de Pinhal da Serra, RS. Os sítios são compostos por aterros anelares (muros de terra) isolados ou cercando montículos. É proposta uma classificação que leva em conta a variabilidade arquitetônica de tais sítios, conforme as dimensões dos aterros, seu formato e a presença ou ausência de montículos. São considerados também os dados de escavações que evidenciam as atividades realizadas nesses locais. O tipo de sítio mais freqüente consiste em pequenos aterros anelares cercando montículos que contêm sepultamentos cremados. Pode-se interpretá-los como cemitérios de grupos que habitavam em sítios de casas subterrâneas vizinhos. Os aterros anelares de grandes dimensões e sem montículos são interpretados como centros cerimoniais regionais onde se reunia uma população mais ampla. Sítios com arquitetura complexa - aterros de diferentes formatos combinados e muitos montículos - apresentaram evidências de ritos mais elaborados, envolvendo festins mortuários. Possivelmente, eram locais de sepultamento de indivíduos de maior status. Os dados dos sítios mortuários são combinados com os dos assentamentos, que também sugerem um padrão hierárquico, com sítios densos (aglomerados com muitas casas subterrâneas) regularmente espaçados e cercados por sítios menos densos. Por fim, consideram-se as continuidades com os cacicados Kaingang históricos, que mantiveram a construção de montículos funerários como elemento importante da autoridade dos caciques no momento de enfrentamento com os colonizadores europeus.This dissertation analyzes the ceremonial sites associated with a Southern Jê occupation in the city of Pinhal da Serra, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The sites consist in earthworks which can be either isolated or surrounding mounds. A classification is proposed considering the architectonic variability of the sites, according to earthwork size, shape, and the presence or absence of mounds. Excavation data which reveal activities performed in such places are also taken into consideration. The most frequent site type consists in small earthworks surrounding mounds which contain cremated burials. They can be interpreted as cemeteries for groups that inhabited pithouse sites nearby. Large earthworks without mounds are interpreted as regional ceremonial centers where a larger population gathered. Sites with complex architecture - earthworks of different shapes combined and surrounding many mounds - exhibited evidences of more elaborate rites including funerary feasting. It is possible that they were places for the burial of individuals with higher status. The data from the mortuary sites are combined with those from the settlements, which also suggest a hierarchical pattern with dense sites (clusters of many pithouses) regularly spaced and surrounded by less dense sites. Finally, I consider continuities with the historical Kaingang chiefdoms, where the construction of burial mounds had been maintained as an important element of chiefly authority during the confrontation with the european colonizers.
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Lindqvist, Maria. "Promised Soils : Senses of Place Among Yezidis in Dalarna and Sheikhan." Licentiate thesis, Södertörns högskola, Religionsvetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-44021.
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This is an ethnographic study that focuses on Zahmanê Êzîdîa Li Dalarna, the Yezidi cemetery, in Borlänge. The Swedish town of Borlänge has one of the largest Yezidi diaspora communities in Western Europe; a majority emigrated from the Northern Iraqi region of Sheikhan during the 1990s and early 2000s. The overall aim of this project is to investigate how the Yezidi community in Borlänge puts Zahmanê Êzîdîa Li Dalarna into use, the meanings ascribed to the site by individual interviewees, and how these relate to ritual places and practices in Sheikhan. The empirical material stems from observations and interviews among members of three extended Yezidi families in Borlänge and in Sheikhan, and archival material from the Church of Sweden. Fieldwork in Sheikhan focused on the valley of Lalish and the cemetery sites in the Yezidi villages in Sheikhan. The empirical material is presented, analysed and discussed through a theoretical framework of place, creation and maintenance of social memory through ritual practice, and the concept of transfer of ritual. The empirical material reveals that salient ritual actions and elements from ceremonies in Lalish and the Yezidi villages in Sheikhan are transferred to Borlänge, and there put into use for ritual practices and for creating and maintaining a collective identity outside of Iraq.
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Jelicic, Anna. "En hårdkokt historia : En studie av äggskalfynd från vikingatida gravkontext med särskilt fokus på Uppland och Gotland." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-324894.
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This thesis examines archaeological eggshell finds from cremation graves in the Swedish province of Uppland as well as inhumation graves from the island of Gotland. All graves are dated to the Viking Age, however, the chronology varies by the region, with the period´s ending placed around year 1050 AD in Uppland and around year 1150 AD at the island of Gotland. An attempt is made to create a list of all known cases of egg depositions in graves during the period of interest, and to subsequently analyse them all in order to get a better understanding of this practice. The comparative analysis of the artefact assemblages within the graves and grave constructions is undertaken in order to identify possible regularities in how and when the egg was used within the ritual sequence. Although notable regional variations and differences in Viking Age burial customs are known to exist between the two investigated regions, and artefacts deposited within the graves are adapted to regional conditions, it is possible, amongst other things, to observe similarities in the timing of egg deposition. By understanding the funeral as a rite of passage that signified the transition between the states of life and death, and with the final goal of achieving the distinction between the world of the living and the realm of deceased ancestors, it is possible to better comprehend the funeral rituals and their archaeological remains – in this case avian eggshells. By applying van Gennep's rites of passage tripartite structure, involving separation, liminality, and incorporation, it is concluded that eggs, as we see them in the archaeological material presented in this study, are used in the last stage of this model. This is the part of the process where the main goal is reintegration of those who participated in ritual into a new social order. It is thus proposed here that eggs might be seen as hierophanies: profane, everyday objects that have manifested into something sacred and who are clearly understood as such to those involved in burial but not necessary to outsiders: as symbols for fertility, regeneration, rebirth and transformation.
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Peyroteo, Stjerna Rita. "On Death in the Mesolithic : Or the Mortuary Practices of the Last Hunter-Gatherers of the South-Western Iberian Peninsula, 7th–6th Millennium BCE." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-271551.
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The history of death is entangled with the history of changing social values, meaning that a shift in attitudes to death will be consistent with changes in a society’s world view. Late Mesolithic shell middens in the Tagus and Sado valleys, Portugal, constitute some of the largest and earliest burial grounds known, arranged and maintained by people with a hunting, fishing, and foraging lifestyle, c 6000–5000 cal BCE. These sites have been interpreted in the light of economic and environmental processes as territorial claims to establish control over limited resources. This approach does not explain the significance of the frequent disposal of the dead in neighbouring burial grounds, and how these places were meaningful and socially recognized. The aim of this dissertation is to answer these questions through the detailed analysis of museum collections of human burials from these sites, excavated between the late nineteenth century and the 1960s. I examine the burial activity of the last hunter-gatherers of the south-western Iberian Peninsula from an archaeological perspective, and explain the burial phenomenon through the lens of historical and humanist approaches to death and hunter-gatherers, on the basis of theoretical concepts of social memory, place, mortuary ritual practice, and historical processes. Human burials are investigated in terms of time and practice based on the application of three methods: radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis to define the chronological framework of the burial activity at each site and valley; stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen aimed at defining the burial populations by the identification of dietary choices; and archaeothanatology to reconstruct and define central practices in the treatment of the dead. This dissertation provides new perspectives on the role and relevance of the shell middens in the Tagus and Sado valleys. Hunter-gatherers frequenting these sites were bound by shared social practices, which included the formation and maintenance of burial grounds, as a primary means of history making. Death rituals played a central role in the life of these hunter-gatherers in developing a sense of community, as well as maintaining social ties in both life and death.
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Gonzalez, Rodriguez Mireya. "Death is another country : mortuary rituals and identity in Fazzan, Libya." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/33553.
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Death is universal and all societies have developed some kind of death ritual which serves as a formalisation of the death and an opportunity to mourn the dead. After the death of a person, there is the need to deal with both the emotional and physical aspects of death, including the disposal of the deceased. In modern times, death is removed from human experience. We are no longer constantly faced with death, and when we are it is presented in a sanitised form. The death of a family member, a friend, a neighbour, provides us with the experience of death and a reminder of our existence and certain extinction. Death rituals reaffirm the central beliefs within culture. They are drawn on previous practices and memories. Cemeteries and funerary monuments act as physical memories; they become the focus of rituals and tie them to the social memory. The Garamantes flourished in the region of Fazzan in the period c.500 BC- c. AD 500. Classical sources provides a first contact with this civilisation, although as discussed in this thesis, archaeology is offering the opportunity to combine what Graeco-Roman writers understood the Garamantes to be and what they have left behind. My interest lays with their mortuary rituals, the Garamantian way of death and how, at the time of death, the Garamantes saw themselves as one culture, following a similar pattern of behaviour across time and space. The analysis of the cemeteries, place (structures) and burial rituals, the treatment of the deceased and the offerings linked with death provides information on the cultural identity of the Garamantes and their and social values, which have been transmitted through the funerary record.
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Brookes, Alison. "The visible dead : a new approach to the study of late Iron Age mortuary practice in south-eastern Britain." Thesis, University of South Wales, 2003. https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/en/studentthesis/the-visible-dead(d254e3db-1583-4794-8387-28db682c5326).html.
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The principal aim of the thesis is to investigate the mortuary practices of the late Iron Age period in south-eastern Britain, focusing on identification of the wider sequence of activity. It is evident that the deposition of the calcined remains and associated objects are just one element in a more complicated pattern of behaviour. A number of contemporary inhumation burials and mortuary-related features drawn from an increasing number of sites illustrate the wider practices in operation. The identification of pyre-related features and debris lies at the core of this study providing an opportunity to advance understanding of pyre technology as well as the mortuary rituals. This study provides an opportunity to advance late Iron Age mortuary studies in relation to the cosmological, political and ideological structure (Fitzpatrick 1997; Pearce 1997a; 1997b; 1999; McKinley 2000).
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Wilke, Sacha Jo-Ann. "From remains to rituals : exploring the changing mortuary program at El Rayo, Nicaragua." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43480.
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El Rayo is an archaeological site in Pacific Nicaragua that spans two time periods the Bagaces (AD 300-800) and Sapoa (AD 800-1350). In addition to the domestic assemblage of the site, El Rayo also contains burials from both time periods. El Rayo is one of the most well documented archaeological sites in Nicaragua and the presence of both Bagaces and Sapoa material makes it a valuable archaeological site. In comparing the burial assemblage, the patterns which appear in the archaeological record are distinct in the different time periods. These patterns, including the change in the location of burials from within domestic areas to specific mortuary contexts, a transition from single to multiple burials, and the inclusion of burial goods with the burials that appear to represent significant changes in the rituals associated with the burial of the dead.
By exploring the mortuary program at El Rayo I argue that the changes represent the negotiation of a single community through changing cultural circumstances that mark and in some ways define the transition from the Bagaces Period to the Sapoa Period. The mortuary program shows continuity which supports the notion of cultural interactions without the complete replacement of one group by another. I focus on the burial area and the nature of the remains to interpret a changing mortuary program rather than focusing on the mortuary goods recovered with specific individuals. Based on Arthur Saxe’s Hypothesis 8 that argues for the connection between the use and maintenance of formal cemeteries and control of critical resources (1970:119). I suggest that the changing mortuary program is the result of increased population pressures and the desire to create public markers of identity and ownership of local resources.
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Stensköld, Eva. "Att berätta en senneolitisk historia : Sten och metall i södra Sverige 2350-1700 f. Kr." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-285.
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This thesis discusses aspects of how the Late Neolithic society in southern Sweden changed through the use of metal. Particular focus is on how the different categories of the material culture were utilized in this process – the Late Neolithic flint daggers and objects of stone imitating objects of metal. The presence of metal in the Late Neolithic society is discussed and explicated by the correlation of metal objects to objects imitating metal. Imitations are not perceived as passive copies, but as a continuing dialogue between artefacts. These imitations are viewed as filling a function wherein they help to prepare society to express social and political processes in a different material, as a way to meet and relate to the new world-view that the metal objects implied through their existence. The difference between resharpened and non-resharpened flint daggers is explored through a variety of quantitative and qualitative analyses. There appears to have been two differing rules of deposition of the two types of flint daggers in the Late Neolithic society. Resharpened and non-resharpened flint daggers thus seem to relate to different societal spheres of significance in society. It is suggested that the flint daggers were used in varying forms of ritual body modification practices, as tools for alteration of bodily appearance. These rituals can be termed passage rituals – rituals connected to the individual’s journey through her life-cycle. The resharpening of the dagger blade is then to be understood as a ceremonial resharpening, a ritual remaking of the dagger. During the Late Neolithic, gallery graves, mortuary houses and votive offerings were used to express a connection to an older, ancestral ideology, based on communal rituals. At the same time a new ideology was expressed through the use of individual earth graves and ritual body modification practices. The human body, previously attributed an ancestral role, was now used as a medium of classification, signification and individual expression. The ritual practice works both as a societal regulator and as a way for individuals to express themselves in relation to others. The ritual body modification practices, manifested in different rituals of passage, may have been a way for individuals to relate to the changes in society during the course of the Late Neolithic.
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Denner, Antje. "Under the shade tree : mortuary rituals and aesthetic expression on the Anir Islands, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2010. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/19418/.
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Röst, Anna. "Fragmenterade platser, ting och människor : Stenkonstruktioner och depositioner på två gravfältslokaler i Södermanland ca 1000–300 f Kr." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-134704.
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It is generally considered that cairns and stone constructions of different shapes and sizes make up the grave monuments of the Late Bronze Age (1000–300 BC) in the province of Södermanland in Sweden. However, these “monuments” often contain only small amounts of burnt bone, and often no human remains at all. At the same time, human bones are found in settlement sites and other "non-grave" contexts. The materiality of human remains thus appears to be far more complex than a modern definition of "burial" or "grave" would allow. This thesis investigates practices beyond the common terminology of burial archaeology, and focuses on the practices of collecting, enclosing and scattering stones, human remains, pottery and metal objects in stone constructions traditionally labeled "graves". The study is conducted through a detailed micro-level analysis combining constructions, depositions of artefacts and human remains in a perspective of perception, formation processes and temporality. Based on the results from studies of two Late Bronze Age burial grounds in Eastern Sweden, it is argued that there is a need to differentiate the meaning content of cremated bone within in what we refer to as burial grounds. Results indicate that the passage rituals in connection with death and disposal of remains do not end when the cremated bone is deposited in the stone constructions. The constructions and deposits are subject to further attention and actions, altering the meaning of the cremated bones while the individual undergoes transformation to a fully transformed substance. The stone constructions themselves do not appear to have been built for eternity, but rather as functional nodes of transformation, constructed to facilitate the passage rituals.
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Tuovinen, T. (Tapani). "The Burial Cairns and the Landscape in the Archipelago of Åboland, SW Finland, in the Bronze Age and the Iron Age." Doctoral thesis, University of Oulu, 2002. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9514268024.
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Abstract Mortuary rituals express and cope with disorder brought about by a member's death in the community. The autonomous connection of the deceased with the community is disrupted through mortuary rituals. In many cultures the subsequent contacts with the realm of the dead are maintained in formalized practices, sometimes including or referring to objects or patterns that can be traced in the archaeological record. In this study it is asked, if the Bronze Age and Iron Age burial cairns (1200 BC - AD 1000) in the SW archipelago of Finland might be interpreted as monuments establishing a link between the landscape and the religious context of symbolic meanings, thus making it meaningful to examine the spatial references of grave sites. The field studies include excavations, surveys, boulder analyses, and weathering studies. The number of cairns in the area is 444. Examination of samples of boulders suggested that the stones were usually collected from the adjacent terrain. The Schmidt hammer technique was applied to measure the weathering differences between basal and lateral surfaces, and possible secondary interference. The chronology of the archipelago cairns is based on previous studies related to general chronological characteristics and datings of archipelago graves. Using discriminant analysis, the size of the cairn, the convexity of the surface at the grave site, and the topography of the terrain were identified as the variables most related to the differences between Group P, having a Bronze Age character (147 cairns), from Group R of Iron Age character (218 cairns). Two models representing the shorelines of 500 BC and AD 1000 were reconstructed using a digital elevation model (DEM). Monte Carlo-testing was applied when the visible areas around grave sites were compared to reference sets in four subareas. The grave sites in Group P were often directed towards the land, whereas the grave sites in Group R were typically directed towards the sea. The difference might be related to differences in subsistence strategies. The cairns represented a conservative burial custom that belonged to local communities in maritime and northern areas, as opposed to the southern agricultural environmentsTiivistelmä Vainajan omaehtoinen yhteys elävien yhteisöön katkeaa vasta yhteisöllisen kuolemanrituaalin lopullisesti päätyttyä. Monissa kulttuureissa kuolemanrituaalin jälkeiset yhteydet vainajaan kiteytyvät muodollisiksi käytännöiksi, jotka voivat tulla arkeologisesti näkyviin aineellisissa jäännöksissä tai luonnonmaiseman paikkojen, tilojen ja elementtien suhteissa. Työssä tarkastellaan, ovatko Turunmaan saariston pronssikauden ja rautakauden hautarauniot (1200 e.Kr. - 1000 j.Kr.) tulkittavissa monumenteiksi, jotka yhdistivät maiseman symbolisten merkitysten uskomukselliseen kontekstiin. Kenttätutkimuksiin kuuluu kaivauksia, inventointi, lohkaretutkimuksia ja rapautumismittauksia. Hautoja on 444. Lohkaretutkimukset osoittivat kivien tulleen kerätyiksi hautapaikkojen läheisyydestä. Tapaustutkielmissa kiveyksen basaali- ja lateraalipintojen välistä rapautumiseroa ja sekundaarisia vaurioita tutkittiin kimmovasaramittauksin. Hautaraunioiden kronologia perustuu aikaisempiin tutkimuksiin kronologisista tunnusmerkeistä sekä saariston ajoitettuihin hautoihin. Erotteluanalyysissa kiveyksen laajuus, hautapaikan maanpinnan kuperuus ja hautapaikan suhde ympäröiviin huippuihin osoittautuivat muuttujiksi, jotka selvimmin jakavat aineiston pronssikauden tyypin P-ryhmään (147 hautaa) ja rautakauden tyypin R-ryhmään (218 hautaa). Numeerisesta korkeusmallista laskettiin kaksi maastomallia, jotka vastaavat rannansiirtymisen kehitysvaihetta 500 e.Kr. (P-ryhmä) ja 1000 j.Kr. (R-ryhmä). Hautapaikoilta näkyvissä olleita alueita verrattiin satunnaisesti valittuihin verrokkipaikkoihin Monte Carlo -testauksen avulla. Merkittävin ero oli, että P-ryhmän hautapaikat olivat tyypillisesti suuntautuneet merta ja R-ryhmän hautapaikat maata kohti. Ero liittynee toimeentuloon latautuneisiin odotuksiin ja epävarmuuksiin. Hautarauniot merkitsevät konservatiivista hautaustapaa, joka kuului enemmän mereisten ja pohjoisten paikallisyhteisöjen kuin agraarisen ja eteläisen asutuksen piiriin
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Bragoni, Beatriz. "Rituales mortuorios y ceremonial cívico: José de San Martín en el panteón argentino." Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2014. http://repositorio.pucp.edu.pe/index/handle/123456789/121862.
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The nineteenth century in Spanish America exhibits a true saga of funeral ceremonies intended to exalt the role of great men in the configuration of the symbolic arsenal which contributed to molding the foundational mythology of nation-states. The Republican state language turned the association between hero, national body and posterity into a resource of the affirmation of national authority and social and political cohesion. Converted into keystones in the building of the national pantheon, State funerals carried out during the 19th century in the majority of the Spanish American republics became formidable instruments of political and cultural construction. Along these lines, the presen tarticle is occupied with contextualizing the slow process of placing José de San Martín as an Argentine national hero within the coordinates of 19th century European and Spanish American funerary rituals.El siglo XIX hispanoamericano exhibe una verdadera saga de ceremoniales fúnebres destinados a enaltecer el papel de los grandes hombres en la configuración del arsenal simbólico que contribuía a moldear la mitología fundacional de los estados nacionales. El lenguaje estatal republicano hizo de la asociación entre héroe, cuerpo nacional y posteridad un recurso de afirmación de la autoridad nacional y de cohesión social y política.Convertidos en piezas angulares en la fabricación del panteón nacional, los funerales de Estado realizados a lo largo del siglo XIX en la mayoría de las repúblicas hispanoamericanas se convirtieron en instrumentos formidables de construcción políticay cultural. En esta línea, el presente artículose ocupa de contextualizar la dilatada empresa de colocación de José de San Martíncomo héroe nacional argentino en las coordenadas de los rituales funerarios del siglo XIX europeo e hispanoamericano.
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Andersson, Helena. "Gotländska stenåldersstudier : Människor och djur, platser och landskap." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-127911.
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This thesis deals mainly with the Middle Neolithic period (ca. 3200-2300 BC) on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The aim is to deepen the understanding of how the islanders related to their surroundings, to the landscape, to places, to objects, to animals and to humans, both living and dead. The archaeological material is studied downwards and up with a focus on practices, especially the handling and deposition of materials and objects in graves, within sites and in the landscape. The study is comparative and the Middle Neolithic is described in relation to the Early Neolithic and the Mesolithic period on the island. From a long term perspective the island is presented as a region where strong continuity can be identified, regarding both way of life and economy. In contrast, substantial changes did occur through time regarding the islander’s conceptions of the world and of social relations. This in turn affected the way they looked upon the landscape, different sites and animals, as well as other human beings. During the Mesolithic, the islanders first saw it as possible to create their world, their micro-cosmos, wherever they were, and they saw themselves as living in symbiosis with seals. With time, though, they started to relate, to connect and to identify themselves with the island, its landscape and its material, with axe sites and a growing group identity as results. The growing group identity culminated during the Early Neolithic with a dualistic conception of the world and with ritualised depositions in border zones. The Middle Neolithic is presented as a period when earlier boundaries were dissolved. This concerned, for example, boundaries towards the world around the islanders and they were no longer keeping themselves to their own sphere. At the same time individuals became socially important. It became accepted and also vital to give expression to personal identity, which was done through objects, materials and animals. Despite this, group identity continued to be an important part in their lives. This is most evident through the specific Pitted Ware sites, where the dead were also treated and buried. These places were sites for ritual and social practices, situated in visible, central and easy accessible locations, like gates in and out of the islands’ different areas. The dead were very important for the islanders. In the beginning of MN B they started to adopt aspects from the Battle Axe culture, but they never embraced Battle Axe grave customs. Instead they held on to the Pitted Ware way of dealing with the dead and buried, and to the Pitted Ware sites, through the whole period, with large burial grounds as a result.
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Yang, Yunyun. "Shifting Memories: Burial Practices and Cultural Interaction in Bronze Age China : A study of the Xiaohe-Gumugou cemeteries in the Tarim Basin." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-386612.
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This study focuses on the burial practices in the Bronze Age Xiaohe-Gumugou cemeteries, north-west China, in order to understand how people constructed their social identities and delivered the social cognitions through generations. The Xiaohe-Gumugou cemeteries, as the main sites of the Xiaohe cultural horizon, have central roles for the understanding of the formation of the Bronze Age cultural groups and the cultural interactions between the west and the east in the Tarim Basin. However, current research is lacking in-depth examinations of the material culture of the cemeteries, and the contexts of the surrounding archaeological cultures in a timespan from Bronze Age to Iron Age. Through detailed comparisons of the construction of coffins and monuments, the dress of the dead, and the burial goods assemblages, this study provides an overview of the social structural development, from the Gumugou group’s heterogenous condition to the Xiaohe group’s homogeneous and mature state. Also, through relating to the results of biological and osteological analyses, and applying geographical analyses to the material, this study suggests that the early settlers in the Tarim Basin, the Xiaohe-Gumugou people have created their own social identities. Although the Xiaohe-Gumugou people might have migrated from southern Siberia or Central Asia, the archaeological material shows indications of their own typical features. When newcomers joined the society, the local burial customs were accepted and applied in a new cultural setting.Denna studie fokuserar på gravskick på gravfälten Xiaohe och Gumugou i nordvästra Kina, för att förstå hur människor konstruerade social identitet och överförde kulturella föreställningar mellan generationer. Xiaohe-Gumugou-gravfälten, som de viktigaste platserna i Xiaohe-kulturhorisonten, är centrala för förståelsen av bildandet av bronsålderns kulturgrupper och de kulturella växelverkningarna mellan väst och öst i Tarimbäckenet. Tidigare forskning saknar fördjupade undersökningar av gravfältens materiella kultur samt den historiska kontexten med de omgivande arkeologiska kulturerna under tidsperioden från bronsålder till järnålder. Genom detaljerade jämförelser av konstruktionen av kistor och monument samt de dödas klädsel och gravgåvor, ger denna studie en översikt över utvecklingen av sociala strukturer, från Gumugou-gruppens heterogena situation till Xiaohe-gruppens homogena och mogna tillstånd. Genom att relatera till resultaten från biologiska och osteologiska analyser och tillämpa geografiska analyser på materialet, tyder den här studien på att de tidiga bosättarna i Tarimbäckenet, Xiaohe-Gumugou-folket, har utvecklat egna sociala identiteter. Trots att Xiaohe-Gumugou-folket kan ha migrerat från södra Sibirien eller Centralasien visar det arkeologiska materialet indikationer på egna typiska egenskaper. När nykomlingar anslöt till samhället accepterades de lokala begravningssederna och tillämpades i ett nytt kulturellt sammanhang.
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Thedéen, Susanne. "Gränser i livet - gränser i landskapet : Generationsrelationer och rituella praktiker i södermanländska bronsålderslandskap." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-297.
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This thesis deals with issues relating to the cosmological dimensions of landscapes, the cultural construction of age and the long-term changes in passage rituals and mortuary practices in the Bronze Age societies of Södermanland in East Central Sweden. A gender perspective forms the underlying theoretical framework, while the study as a whole is particularly interested in power relations between generations as an impetus for societal change. Burials from cairns and cemeteries, as well as heaps of fire-cracked stones, rock-carvings and ritual hoards from two Bronze Age Landscapes in Södermanland are used as examples and to illustrate the interpretations presented in this study. It is proposed that perceptions of landscapes and cosmology were created by placing cairns and stone settings at liminal places or boundaries in the landscape, while heaps of fire-cracked stones were situated at focal points. Places where rock-carvings are found, nearby rapids or on islands along river courses, are interpreted as birth-places, and stem from origin myths about the birth of the first humans at these sites. It is proposed that birth, life and death as cosmological principles may be perceived in the landscape and are related to different kinds of waters. In addition, it is suggested that the cultural construction of age is expressed in spatial terms where adults - both men and women - with special abilities and esoteric knowledge related to passage rituals, were buried in cairns. Infants, whose relationship with these adults was special, were instead buried in the heaps of fire-cracked stones. It is also considered that, among other things, the absence of swords in burials implies that the societies of East Central Sweden probably had a social organization that was distinct from the societies of southern Scandinavia. Regarding long-term changes in ritual practices it is suggested that ritual tools used in mortuary practices change from flint daggers in the Late Neolithic, to razors and tweezers during the Bronze Age. Further changes occurred in the Late Bronze Age, when pins were introduced into the ritual practices. Regarding age and gender, osteological estimates show that both adult men and women participated in passage rituals. With the transition to pins we also see changes in who dealt with passage rituals and it is rather young women who were responsible for this sphere in the later period. As children also become visible - both in burials and at rock-carving sites – during the Late Bronze Age, this is interpreted as signalling shifts in power relations between genders and generations in favour of women and younger people.
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Grabowski, Maciej. "Mortuary Ritual and Society in Parthian Babylonia." Doctoral thesis, 2015. https://depotuw.ceon.pl/handle/item/1148.
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Despite the increasing interest in the culture and religion of the Parthian or Arsacid state (ca. 250 BC-224 AD), the diversified mortuary rites and the related system of beliefs remain on the fringe of the scholarly discourse. Burials of the so-called late periods in the history of Mesopotamia were found in abundance on many of the ancient sites, especially throughout Babylonia, which was a political centre of the Arsacid monarchy. Although the extent of the published material is far from satisfactory, some of the recent works in a considerable way extend our knowledge of the types of tombs, burial receptacles and grave inventory. A comprehensive interpretation of the mortuary evidence in socio-cultural terms is, however, still lacking.
The dissertation aims to resolve this hiatus through a complex investigation of social, cultural and religious aspects of the burial customs and practices that can be traced on the basis of mortuary evidence. The study is not intended to picture the social structures of Parthian Babylonia, but to shed more light on the cross-cultural phenomena resulting from the ethnic diversity of the local population, including native Babylonians, Greeks, Jews and Iranians.
The main extent of the study encompasses three major urban centres of the region: Babylon, Seleucia-on-the-Tigris and Coche/Veh-Ardashir-“Ctesiphon” offering vast mortuary evidence, which so far has not been subjected to a detailed scholarly scrutiny. The study involves also comparative considerations in regional scope, including mortuary data from the remaining prominent sites of Babylonia such as Uruk and Nippur, as well as remarks on inter-regional links with the material from other parts of Mesopotamia, western Iran and the region of Syro-Palestine.
One of the key aspects of the study is the contextual approach towards the analysis of mortuary evidence focusing on the degree of physical proximity between the grave and the “living society” in terms of settlement patterns and architecture. Through a comprehensive re-evaluation of the available descriptive and stratigraphic data, excavation plans and sections, it was not only possible to provide chronological estimations for some of the tombs, but also to discern between the intramural and the extramural burial sites, and secondly to define a number of intramural contexts e.g., the residential context including the widely-debated issue of in-house versus ruin burials. Socio-cultural dimensions of topographic distribution of burial sites are thoroughly discussed with regards to the suspected preferences of particular ethnic groups.
The extensive time-frame of the subject i.e. ca. 350 years of the Parthian rule over Mesopotamia gave possibility to examine the dynamics and variability within the scope of burial forms and tomb structures. During that time, one may observe a discontinuation of some of the earlier Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid forms of burial e.g. the bathtub coffins and anthropoid terracotta coffins, resulting most likely from the profound cultural changes within the Babylonian society. Noticeable is also the opposite trend of continuity expressed in the uninterrupted use jar burials, brick tombs and pit graves. Lastly, the employment of new or re-introduced forms e.g. the so-called slipper coffins and the aulted tombs, may have been connected with the emergence of status groups, such as Hellenistic urban aristocracy and Parthian administrative and military personnel in some of the Babylonian cities.
One of the least known elements of the Parthian period burial practices are in fact human remains, as skeletal material was only on rarest occasions subjected to the proper anthropological examination. However, data available for some of the burials involved in the study, allow basic understanding of the collective burial rites and changing patterns in position and orientation of the body, especially the shift from flexed/semi-flexed to extended position, and disarticulation of human remains that may be treated as a potential evidence of the secondary burial and/or reduction processes, related perhaps to Jewish and/or Zoroastrian burial customs.
Somewhat more transparent is the issue of grave inventory, whose study lead to a conclusion that the artefacts deposited in tombs were not merely personal belongings of the deceased. Many of them provide valuable insight into the concept of afterlife which in general appears to have comprised of notions deriving from both Greek and Babylonian traditions, blended into one complex system of beliefs. A considerable group of elements of grave inventory testify also to the existence of a diversified but to some extent undoubtedly formalized mortuary rites involving both preparation of the body, a complex funeral ceremony, as well as subsequent commemorative rites connected with the cult of the dead.
On the basis of the whole research, the concluding part of the dissertation substantiates the ways in which the mortuary rites reflected social and cultural conditions of Parthian Babylonia. One of the key points is the syncretisation of the mortuary ritual, reflecting the general phenomenon of cultural syncretism, especially in the sphere of religion. The issue is interrelated with the processes of change in cultural identities through acculturation and adaptation, most evident between the Greek and Babylonian populations. Not surprisingly, the mortuary ritual of Parthian Babylonia must have also possessed significant social functions such as display of socio-economic status, creating of social memory and bonds of group identity and membership, particularly through formal cemeteries and collective family or kin-based burial practices. Eventually, the discontinuity of certain mortuary traditions should be perceived as part of the overall decline of the traditional Babylonian culture towards the end of the Parthian period and at the beginning of the subsequent Sasanian times.
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"Interactions with the Incorporeal in the Mississippian and Ancestral Puebloan Worlds." Doctoral diss., 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.25041.
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abstract: This research explores how people's relationships with the spirits of the dead are embedded in political histories. It addresses the ways in which certain spirits were integral "inhabitants" of two social environments with disparate political traditions. Using the prehistoric mortuary record, I investigate the spirits and their involvement in socio-political affairs in the Prehispanic American Southeast and Southwest. Foremost, I construct a framework to characterize particular social identities for the spirits. Ancestors are select, potent beings who are capable of wielding considerable agency. Ancestral spirits are generic beings who are infrequently active among the living and who can exercise agency only in specific contexts. Anonymous groups of spirits are collectives who exercise little to no agency. I then examine the performance of mortuary ritual to recognize these social identities in the archaeological record. Multivariate analyses evaluate how particular ritual actions memorialized the dead. They concentrate on treatment of the body, construction of burial features, inclusion of material accompaniments, and the spaces of ritual action. Each analysis characterizes the social memories that ritual acts shaped for the spirits. When possible, I supplement analysis of archaeological data with ethnohistoric and ethnographic information. Finally, I compile the memories to describe the social identities for the spirits of the dead. In this study, I examine the identities surrounding the spirits in both a Mississippian period settlement on the Georgia coast and in several Protohistoric era Zuni towns in the northern Southwest. Results indicate that ancestors were powerful members of political factions in coastal Mississippian communities. In contrast, ancestral spirits and collectives of long-dead were custodians of group histories in Zuni communities. I contend that these different spirits were rooted in political traditions of competition. Mississippian ancestors were influential agents on cultural landscapes filled with contestation over social power. Puebloan ancestral spirits were keepers of histories on landscapes where power relations were masked, and where new kinds of communities were coalescing. This study demonstrates that the spirits of the dead are important to anthropological understandings of socio-political trajectories. The spirits are at the heart of the ways in which history influences and determines politics.Dissertation/Thesis
Ph.D. Anthropology 2014
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Schweiss, Amy Ann. "Urbanization, Islamization, and identity crisis : the role of Pashtun women’s mourning in the construction and maintenance of identity." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2012-05-5689.
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Despite prohibitions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad strictly forbidding the practice of dramatic acts of public mourning, Muslim women have persisted in wailing performances throughout history and across boarders. Pashtun social ethics require women to participate in visitation exchanges commemorating sorrowful and joyous events experienced by members of their social circle known as gham-xadi exchanges. These exchanges, which involve performative mourning rites, affirm a woman’s place in society through the maintenance of complex social networks. This research examines the role ritualized mourning performances play in the construction and maintenance of ethnic and religious identities among Pashtun women living in Pakistan. It explores the opposing pressures of Islamic prescription and Pashtun traditions regarding funerary rites and women’s mourning, arguing that social changes taking place in recent decades have caused these pressures to come into increasing conflict with one another. While urbanization and the shift from an agrarian to an industrial based economy in Pakistan has led to the amplified importance of wailing performances, globalization and growing exposure to the West has revitalized anxieties surrounding proper religious practices. The process of Islamization occurring through constitutional and educational reforms in Pakistan compounds this anxiety. These tensions have created an identity crisis among Pashtun women in Pakistan who are then forced to reconcile these disparate demands resulting in the layering of their identities.text
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Vitenti, Lívia. "Couper le fil de la vie : suicide et rituels de mort chez les Atikamekw de Manawan." Thèse, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1866/8533.
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La présente thèse offre une analyse critique du phénomène du suicide en milieu autochtone en s’appuyant notamment sur les croyances sur la mort et sur les rituels funéraires actuels dans la communauté atikamekw de Manawan, dans la région de la Mauricie, au Québec. L’objectif de la recherche est de comprendre la représentation de la mort volontaire chez les Atikamekw à partir des conceptions locales et de tracer un portrait anthropologique de la situation du suicide de cette communauté.
La question du suicide en milieu autochtone étant un sujet sensible et difficile à aborder, nous avons choisi d’associer à notre recherche anthropologique, des discussions interdisciplinaires sur les approches sur le suicide, sur la mort et sur le deuil, tout en portant un regard sur les aspects historiques de la relation entre les Atikamekw et l’État-nation canadien.
Le principe théorique retenu pour cette thèse est celui selon lequel chaque Atikamekw est perçu comme un agent de sa culture, qualifié à reconnaître sa propre situation politique et historique et habilité à proposer des changements sur le plan social et politique.
L’ethnographie réalisée dans le cadre de cette recherche vise également à donner une intelligibilité empirique au phénomène du suicide et aux nouvelles pratiques funéraires à Manawan, tout en étant préoccupé par les liens établis entre les événements du suicide, le contexte historique et la situation actuelle de la communauté de Manawan. Une attention particulière est portée aux aspects sociaux qui y sont liés, comme la question de l’âge, du genre, des relations familiales et sociales, de la consommation d’alcool et de drogues, de l’accessibilité à l’éducation, des relations intergénérationnelles et de la relation entre les membres de la communauté et les professionnels qui travaillent.The following thesis offers an analysis of suicide in native communities with a focus namely on the beliefs and funeral rituals that are currently practiced in the Atikamekw community of Manawan, in the region of Maurice, Québec. The objective of this research is to understand the intentional deaths that take place in the Atikamekw community based upon the native conceptions and to trace an anthropological portrait of the current state of suicide in this community. Suicide in native communities is a sensitive, difficultly approached topic; we have chosen to associate our anthropologic research with interdisciplinary discussions on the approaches to suicide as well as death and mourning, all pertaining to historical aspects in relations between the Atikamekw and the national state of Canada. The principal theory retained throughout this thesis is that every Atikamekw is perceived as an agent of their own culture, qualified to recognize their political situation and history as well as the ability to propose changes regarding their social and political state. The ethnography conducted in relation to this project aims to give an empirical intelligibility to the instances of suicide and new mortuary practices in Manawan, while keeping the relationships between suicide, the historical context, and the current state of the Manawan community established. A particular attention has been given to social aspects which are linked, such as age, gender, family and social relationships, alcohol and drug consumption, the accessibility to education, the intergenerational relationships as well as the relationships between the community and working professionals.
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Basse, Karissa Anne. "Coffin hardware analysis and chronology of the Head Cemetery, Robertson County, Texas." 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/22430.
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Atkins performed an archaeological relocation of a nineteenth century cemetery on behalf of Luminant Mining Company, within the Kosse Mine in Robertson County, Texas between the years of 2011 and 2012. The Head Cemetery offers unique opportunities to examine views of death and burial in rural, central Texas during the period of the early statehood until around 1900. The Head family and other members of the settlement were part of a pioneer community exhibiting clear expressions of family and community affiliations through spatiality and the material culture of burials. An analysis of coffin hardware and burial practices provides suggestions for dating and identifying unknown interments and exploring changing sentiments towards death by Anglo American settlers within the broader sociohistorical context of the nineteenth century.text
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Pankowská, Anna. "Rekonstrukce zdraví a životního stylu jedinců pohřbených v sídlištních jamách a hrobech starší a střední doby bronzové na základě patologických znaků na kostře." Doctoral thesis, 2014. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-332555.
Full textAbstract:
An increase in the diversity of Early Bronze Age (EBA) burial practices is well documented in central and southern Moravia between 2200-1500 BC. Apart from scarce cremations and pithoi burials, two more frequent parallel burial types appear. One is the standard burials in cemeteries, the other burials in settlement pits, the latter considered a deviation until recently. Thanks to recent excavations and new quantification procedures, however, abundance of settlement burials as well as uniformity and predictability of body deposition and grave equipment in pit burials has been shown. My intention is to show the existence of two parallel burial rites on the basis of bioarchaeological and archaeological evidence. I focus on the reconstruction of health and social status of individuals buried in settlement pits and graves. I observe the amount of demographic variability, diseases and trauma within each group. I suppose the distribution of diseases according to age, sex and archaeological record will be similar within each of the groups. As a result, we may speak about two equivalent burial practices. If deviations are encountered within settlement pits, however, we should speak about deviations or burials determined for a minority and homogeneous segment of population. Skeletons originate in two...