Abstract
Violence serves social functions. Performative violence is used to reinforce social behavior and to create and reinforce social relationships between aggressors, witnesses, and victims. Sacred Ridge (a PI site in southwestern Colorado dating to approximately AD 100) is a large EP (Extreme Processing) assemblage where at least 33 individuals were killed, disarticulated and fragmented, and their remains placed within a pit structure. The crania, in particular, exhibit consistent patterning in fracture distribution and type, mutilation, burning, tool marks, and missing bone; this indicates that individual crania were treated similarly regardless of age or sex. Distribution of the remains within the pit structure indicates that the crania were deposited in a fragmented state, meaning they would have been unidentifiable as individuals and possibly as human beings. This chapter explores the patterned processing of the crania as performance. The roles of the aggressors, witnesses, and victims associated with this assemblage are explored through this performative lens.
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