Excavations Project at Paloma, Chilca Valley, PerúThe preceramic site of Paloma (12b-VII-613), Chilca Valley, Peru, was excavated over a number of seasons, first by Frédéric-André Engel and Bernardino Ojeda and later by Robert A. Benfer, Jr., in a joint project with the original investigators. The project was a multidisciplinary investigation of the largest site of its time period, 7800 to 4700 B.P. The Hypsithermal time of global warming, 6500-5000 B.P. was optimal for the central coast due to an increase in moisture. The principle occupation of Paloma, strata 300 and 200, were during the Hypsithermal. We studied the adjustments to sedentary life from an exceptionally extensive series of studies of the consequences of this life registered in the skeletons and teeth of the 201 individuals excavated from in and around over 50 domestic structures in 1900 square meters of excavations. Principal findings from the study of the human remains along with studies of animal and plant remains have been summarized elsewhere (Benfer 1990). Here I present details of the excavation and the stratigraphy of the site. In addition, new data are presented from analyses of mortuary customs and plant use. / El sitio precerámico de Paloma (12b-VII-613) se ubica en el valle de Chilca, Perú y fue excavado durante varias temporadas, originalmente por F. Engel y B. Ojeda y luego por R. Benfer, Jr. Este último dirigió una investigación multidisciplinaria del sitio ocupado entre 7800 hasta 4700 a.p. La epoca hipsitermal del calentamiento global (6500-5000 a.p.) fue el periodo más favorable para la Costa Central debido al aumento de humedad a la que corresponde la ocupación principal de Paloma (estratos 300 y 200). El autor investigó las adaptaciones a la vida sedentaria desde una serie extensiva y excepcional de estudios para encontrar las consecuencias de esta vida, registrada en los esqueletos y dientes de los 201 individuos excavados dentro y alrededor de más de 50 estructuras domésticas en 1900 m2 excavados. Los principales hallazgos de restos humanos así como restos vegetales y animales han sido resumidos anteriormente (Benfer 1990). Aquí se presentan detalles de las excavaciones y de la estratigrafía del sitio, así como nuevos datos producto de los análisis de las costumbres de los entierros y del uso de plantas.

A presente pesquisa de doutorado pretende levantar, catalogar e examinar os vestígios arqueológicos dos contextos funerários, datados entre o intervalo do século XI ao VIII a.C. nos principais sítios da região da Argólida (Mapas 1, 2 e 3), Argos, Tirinto, Asine, Micenas, Náuplia e Lerna. Comparando tais dados entre si, e discutindo-os a partir de fundamentos teórico-metodológicos da Arqueologia das Práticas Mortuárias, objetivamos, por fim, levantar considerações sobre os costumes funerários dessa área, revelando possíveis padrões de enterramento e de comportamento sócio-cultural inseridos nas mudanças políticas ocorridas em um período de longa duração, principalmente, durante o período denominado de Alto Arcaísmo, o século VIII a.C., com o processo de formação da pólis argiva. / This thesis intends to gather, catalogue and analyze the archaeological data from the funerary contexts, dated from the XI to the VIII centuries BC in the main sites of the Argive plain (Maps 1, 2 and 3). Finally, it is also our aim to compare the data collected and discuss them through the theoretical and methodological basis of the Archaeology of Mortuary Practices trying to reach some questions and considerations about the funerary customs and burial patterns of this region and also possible social and cultural behavior characteristic of the shifts occurred mainly during the VIII century BC.

Over centuries, Hmong people have moved from mountain to mountain, home to home, country to country, crossing rivers and valleys in search of an escape from oppression. The Txiv Xaiv (Plig) ritual and chant has survived serial exodus and diaspora that Hmong people have experienced. This ritual encodes Hmong historical and cosmological understandings as an oral text, passed down from master to student, and performed at funerals to apply that understanding in the management of souls--ultimately to send them home. The Txiv Xaiv (Plig) serves as a glue, connecting the past generations to the generation of today and the generations of tomorrow. A funeral without a Txiv Xaiv is like a tree without its roots. Its ability to preserve Hmong history, morals, and traditions is unparalleled, but the dispersion of Hmong communities across a now global diaspora threatens the vitality of this oral text. An ethnographic film constitutes a critical and central empirical element of this thesis. This film, entitled Returning Home, draws on the affordances of visual and sonic mediums to both depict this oral text and the practices associated with it, and to unpack the cosmology of personhood encoded in the text, which Hickman (2014) calls "ancestral personhood". The film centers on a particular form of the Txiv Xaiv Plig that was preserved by a paramount Master, Shong Ger Thao, who passed down a critical version of the ritual to the director of Returning Home (and author of this thesis) before he passed away. This version of the ritual has the unique capacity to manage the soul of a person who did not receive a complete funeral and proper burial when they passed away, such as the post-1975 exodus from Laos, when Hmong families had to flee for their lives and many people were killed in the jungle along the way. By fate or coincidence (most Hmong would err on the side of fate), the first time that the director of this film was called upon to perform this Txiv Xaiv Plig was for an ex-post-facto funeral for Master Shong Ger's wife, Kia Yang, who had passed away during the lock-down phase of the Covid-10 pandemic, when large gatherings (necessary for a proper Hmong funeral) were not permitted. This film draws on this poetic circle of the passing down of knowledge and putting it into practice, in order to demonstrate the value of the knowledge that Master Shong Ger had preserved, specifically through the use of that knowledge to manage his own late wife's soul, thus completing the circle from one generation to the next in Master Shong Ger's family. This project--the written thesis in conjunction with the film--advances a "Hmong Oral Knowledge" approach that is critical to both understanding and preserving Hmong cosmology. This approach puts Hmong cosmology and philosophy into dialogue with scholarship being produced about Hmong communities across the world which tends to treat Hmong ideas as mere data-to-be-analyzed. The thesis focuses on the substance of Master Shong Ger Thao's philosophy (derived from Hmong oral ritual), in order to "look" and not just "see" (MacDougall 2019) human experience from a Hmong theoretical perspective. Given the primacy of oral and physically performative ritual practice, this thesis employs the medium of film in order to engage with Hmong ritual knowledge and practice in its own terms. The film provides a 'thick depiction' of these practices, and seeks to explicate the cosmology of the 'three souls' model of personhood that underpins these practices, while also focusing on the legacy of Master Shong Ger Thao, who cultivated and preserved the details of this cosmology and the oral texts that encode it.

No description available.

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.

A região de Lagoa Santa é mundialmente famosa pela quantidade, qualidade e antiguidade dos remanescentes esqueletais humanos nela encontrados. Entretanto, muito pouco é conhecido sobre as práticas mortuárias dos grupos que ocuparam a região. A versão vigente na literatura é que essas eram extremamente simples, expeditas e homogêneas. Na presente dissertação esse quadro é questionado. A partir da descrição dos 26 sepultamentos encontrados na Lapa do Santo, foi possível determinar que diferentes padrões funerários se sucederam ao longo do Holoceno. Portanto, as práticas mortuárias da região não apresentam a alegada homogeneidade cronológica. Dentre os padrões de sepultamento identificados no sítio, o de número 1 se destaca não só pela sua antiguidade (8800-8200 AP), mas por apresentar uma forte ênfase na manipulação do corpo, incluindo o caso de decapitação mais antigo do Novo Mundo. Portanto, o registro da Lapa do Santo indica um quadro muito mais complexo e sofisticado para a paisagem mortuária da região de Lagoa Santa do que aquele proposto pela literatura. Mais do que isso, mostra que, ao contrário do que se imaginava, a ênfase na manipulação do corpo no início do Holoceno não era uma característica limitada à região andina. / The Lagoa Santa region is famous for the quantity, quality and antiquity of its human skeletal remains. However, little is known about the mortuary practices of those who inhabited the region. According to literature this practices were very simple, expedient and homogeneous. In this dissertation, this scenario is challenged. Based on the descriptions of 26 human burials found in Lapa do Santo it was established that several distinct burial patterns occurred in the site during Holocene. Thereafter, the idea that in Lagoa Santa the mortuary practices were chronologically homogeneous can no longer be supported. Among the different burial patterns indentified in this site Pattern 1 highlights not only for its antiquity (8800-8200 BP) but also because it presents a strong emphasis in the manipulation of the body, including the oldest case of decapitation ever recorded in the New World. Thereafter, the burials from Lapa do Santo points to a more complex scenario for the mortuary practices in the region of Lagoa Santa than was previously though. Besides, it shows that contrary to was once believed, the emphasis on body manipulation during Early Holocene was not restricted to the Andean region, as was once thought. The mortuary practices of pre-historic hunter-gatherers from Lagoa Santa region: a case study of the Santo Rockshelter archaeological site.

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...

A região de Lagoa Santa é mundialmente famosa pela quantidade, qualidade e antiguidade dos remanescentes esqueletais humanos nela encontrados. Entretanto, muito pouco é conhecido sobre as práticas mortuárias dos grupos que ocuparam a região. A versão vigente na literatura é que essas eram extremamente simples, expeditas e homogêneas. Na presente dissertação esse quadro é questionado. A partir da descrição dos 26 sepultamentos encontrados na Lapa do Santo, foi possível determinar que diferentes padrões funerários se sucederam ao longo do Holoceno. Portanto, as práticas mortuárias da região não apresentam a alegada homogeneidade cronológica. Dentre os padrões de sepultamento identificados no sítio, o de número 1 se destaca não só pela sua antiguidade (8800-8200 AP), mas por apresentar uma forte ênfase na manipulação do corpo, incluindo o caso de decapitação mais antigo do Novo Mundo. Portanto, o registro da Lapa do Santo indica um quadro muito mais complexo e sofisticado para a paisagem mortuária da região de Lagoa Santa do que aquele proposto pela literatura. Mais do que isso, mostra que, ao contrário do que se imaginava, a ênfase na manipulação do corpo no início do Holoceno não era uma característica limitada à região andina. / The Lagoa Santa region is famous for the quantity, quality and antiquity of its human skeletal remains. However, little is known about the mortuary practices of those who inhabited the region. According to literature this practices were very simple, expedient and homogeneous. In this dissertation, this scenario is challenged. Based on the descriptions of 26 human burials found in Lapa do Santo it was established that several distinct burial patterns occurred in the site during Holocene. Thereafter, the idea that in Lagoa Santa the mortuary practices were chronologically homogeneous can no longer be supported. Among the different burial patterns indentified in this site Pattern 1 highlights not only for its antiquity (8800-8200 BP) but also because it presents a strong emphasis in the manipulation of the body, including the oldest case of decapitation ever recorded in the New World. Thereafter, the burials from Lapa do Santo points to a more complex scenario for the mortuary practices in the region of Lagoa Santa than was previously though. Besides, it shows that contrary to was once believed, the emphasis on body manipulation during Early Holocene was not restricted to the Andean region, as was once thought. The mortuary practices of pre-historic hunter-gatherers from Lagoa Santa region: a case study of the Santo Rockshelter archaeological site.

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.

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...