Surviving Childhood

Abstract

The concept of personhood offers insights about the deaths of three young children in a14th century ancestral Puebloan village. As innocents and individuals considered only partly leading an earthly existence, children were thought to be particularly susceptible to suspicions of witchcraft. These children, all three to four and a half years of age, experienced violent deaths that can be understood as ritualized acts of violence to protect their village from evil influences.