No

1999 Dozier Award Winner / This paper examines critically several key assumptions that have guided many archaeological interpretations of prehistoric mortuary assemblages. It is argued that more sophisticated models of mortuary deposition need to be incorporated into research that attempts to reconstruct community structure and other sociological variables from variation in grave assemblages. To illustrate this point, and to begin to build such models, a study of artifacts deposited in mortuary contexts was conducted by the author in a major urban center in Arizona in 1996. Several different behavioral pathways through which objects enter mortuary contexts are identified in this study, and some general material correlates for each are specified. This study also provides a vehicle for exploring preliminarily how, and to what extent, various forms of mortuary depostion are related to the social identities of the deceased. Finally, a synthetic model is developed which seeks to explain variation in mortuary deposition in terms of behavioral interactions between the living, on the one hand, and the deceased and various classes of material culture, on the other. It is hoped that the general models and material correlates developed through this study can be elaborated by prehistorians to bolster inferences drawn from specific mortuary populations and to explore previously-uncharted realms of mortuary behavior in the past.

The Late Bronze Age on the island of Crete saw a period of strong administrative and religious control by the palace at Knossos, which also controlled a vast trade network with the rest of the eastern Mediterranean. After the collapse of the palace of Knossos, the Final Palatial period (1490 - 1320 BCE), was a time of sociopolitical transition and change, witnessing an explosion in number and variety of mortuary practices used, even within the same cemetery. In this thesis I analyze Final Palatial burial practices in a more systematic method than has been previously attempted, in order to gain a better understanding of how the Minoans chose to use the mortuary sphere as a platform for constructing and negotiating their social and political identities in the dynamic socio-political climate of the Final Palatial period.

abstract: This dissertation focuses on the diversity inherent to the process of social community construction. Building upon previous archaeological and bioarchaeological studies of community identities, the current project emphasizes the need for consideration of the impact of diversity on community identity formation in the past and illustrates the utility of a bioarchaeological approach for undertaking this task. Three specific aspects of community formation are addressed: (1) the relationship between symbolic community boundaries and geographic space, (2) the influence of diverse discourses of intra-community sub-groups on community formation, and (3) the negotiation of community boundaries by outsiders. To investigate these aspects of community construction in the past, dietary practices and mortuary rituals of the Late Intermediate Period (c. AD 900-1470) Ychsma society of the central Peruvian coast are examined as a case study. Previous anthropological and sociological studies demonstrate that diet and burial customs are common mechanisms used in processes of group identification around the world, including the Andes. In the current study, analyses of materials from Armatambo and Rinconada Alta in the Rimac Valley are used to examine the ways in which isotopic and dental indicators of diet and archaeological contextual indicators of mortuary rituals correspond with or crosscut spatial burial patterns and additional groups based on sex, age at death, and biogeochemically reconstructed residential origins. Observed patterns are interpreted using a theoretical framework that incorporates sociocultural theory of identity with pre-Columbian Andean ideology of the body, self, and social environment. Results reveal differences in large-scale trends in diet and mortuary practices associated with burial at each site that are interpreted as evidence of symbolic community boundaries between sites. Complexities within larger trends reveal evidence of internal diversity as well as fluidity across community boundaries. Specifically, evidence is presented for intra-community dietary differences, intra-community differences associated with age and sex, and finally evidence of external relationships. This consideration of diversity in community identity construction is concluded to profoundly refine current understandings of Ychsma social interactions. Consequently, this study demonstrates empirical investigation of social diversity is necessary for understanding the complex nature of the social construction of communities in the past. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2015

Yes / Theories of Continuing Bonds, and more recently, the Dual Process of Grieving, have provided new ways of understanding the bereavement process, and have influenced current practice for counsellors, end-oflife care practitioners and other professionals. This paper uses these theories in a new way, exploring their relevance to archaeological interpretation, with particular reference to the phenomenon of the plastering of skulls of the deceased in the Neolithic of Southwest Asia (the Middle East/Near East), suggesting that traditional archaeological interpretations, which focus on concepts of status and social organisation, may be missing a more basic reaction to grief and a desire to keep the dead close for longer.

<p>This thesis explores the relationship between landscape and experience in understanding the historical trajectory of cemeteries, their ongoing role in living communities and their contribution to heritage and memory. It constructs a phenomenological history of Hamilton Cemetery, established in 1848 in Hamilton, Ontario, using a combination of material, archival and ethnographic research, in addition to visual media and statistical analyses. In tracing the physical transformations of this cemetery, as a result of fluctuating levels of maintenance, neglect and destruction, it is evident that cemeteries are implicated in the social processes constructing attitudes towards death, the dead, memory and the past.</p> <p>This thesis will explore Hamilton Cemetery’s past to examine the role of commemorative activities, grave visitation, vandalism, recreational activities and heritage. The period from 1848-1950 was one of active use and maintenance of the cemetery landscape, with the frequency and recentness of burial dictating a high level of reverence and maintenance. Between 1950 and 1990, treatment of the cemetery is better characterized by the emergence of vandalism, limited use of the space, and increasing cumulative decay. Finally, from 1990 to the present there has been a resurgence of interest in the cemetery and a transition back into active management and maintenance recognizing its value to local heritage and ecology.</p> <p>From their emergence as pragmatic, formalized social spaces constructed for the dead, to the saturation of the medium and a demographic shift resulting in neglect, to revitalization as a heritage-based collective past, cemeteries represent dynamic components of the landscape.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

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.

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.

No description available.

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.