Ethnoarchaeology of funeral practices: aspects of the management of current dolmens and collective tombs in the tribal societies of Sumba Island (Indonesia)—abridged version

Abstract

This article presents an ethnoarchaeological study which aims to identify the main characteristics of the practice of collective burial among traditional societies on the island of Sumba (Indonesia). The results also show how the data collected can lead us to modify our understanding of Neolithic collective tombs in European records. These societies are the last in the world to build megalithic monuments intended to be used as collective tombs. Knowledge of the social and religious background and of the subjective experience of the individuals involved is, in this case, the main asset of the ethnoarchaeological approach. Within the systematic study of a village a large number of “biographies” of dolmens were established. The main results are the following: first, the simultaneous use of several collective burials by the same reference group (in the case of Sumba the lineage) could be identified, which led us to propose the notion of a dolmen “pool”; second, a reflection on the causes of the interruptions (temporal hiatus) observed in the use of Neolithic collective tombs could be proposed; third, an initial assessment of the potential contribution of the Sumbanian reference system with regard to the interpretation of the results of paleogenomic studies (those oriented towards the analysis of kinship links) of Neolithic tombs could be established.