Unpacking Personhood and Funerary Customs in the Hohokam Area of Southern Arizona

Abstract

Changing perspectives on concepts of personhood are explored by deconstructing mortuary customs from 10 Tucson Basin (Arizona) Hohokam archaeological sites dating from the Preclassic (A.D. 700–1150) and Classic (A.D. 1150–145011500) periods. Results indicate that certain aspects of personhood did not change across time and space at these sites. However, by analyzing changes through time in cremation rituals, it was possible to infer that some aspects of personhood did change. In the Preclassic period, after bodies were burned, the remains were distributed as inalienable possessions within social networks. This behavior suggests a relational social construction of self where burning transformed the deceased and the remains were considered part-person and part-object. Later in the Classic period, a higher frequency of cremated remains were not divided but instead transferred as a unit to secondary deposits. Perceptions of personhood during this period appear to have defined self as a complete, bounded unit, even after transformation by fire. This change possibly occurred as a result of a general decrease in remembrance networks. These changes in cremation parallel broader sociopolitical changes where increases in social differentiation and complexity are proposed for the Classic period Hohokam.