Death and everyday life

Abstract

This essay highlights the relationships between the realm of the symbolic world expressed in the funerary sphere and the realm of the maintenance activities of quotidian life, focusing on the Argaric culture of Southeast Iberia (c. 2250—1450 cal BC). The article begins by summarizing engendered mortuary archaeology in relation to maintenance activities and by briefly reviewing the funerary record of the Argaric societies. We then expand on the Argar culture, presenting in more depth two different types of archaeological evidence: grave goods deposited in tombs and paleoanthropological analyses conducted on Argaric skeletons. In the first case, we evaluate the relationship of grave goods to material culture integrated in practices related to the management of everyday domestic life, discussing the socio-symbolical significance that the exclusive association between awls and women may have had. In the second case, we report on those skeletal studies that allow us to infer information about sex differentiated tasks. To conclude, we bring these two different bodies of evidence into a focused dialogue in order to reach a better understanding about the relationship between the social perception and construction of Argaric women's identity and the practices that they may have carried out on a quotidian basis.