Mortuary Ritual Research Articles

An Upper Palaeolithic engraved human bone associated with ritualistic cannibalism.

Cut-marked and broken human bones are a recurrent feature of Magdalenian (~17–12,000 years BP, uncalibrated dates) European sites. Human remains at Gough’s Cave (UK) have been modified as part of a Magdalenian mortuary ritual that combined the intensive processing of entire corpses to extract edible tissues and the modification of skulls to produce skull-cups. A human radius from Gough’s Cave shows evidence of cut marks, percussion damage and human tooth marks, indicative of cannibalism, as well as a set of unusual zig-zagging incisions on the lateral side of the diaphysis. These latter incisions cannot be unambiguously associated with filleting of muscles. We compared the macro- and micro-morphological characteristics of these marks to over 300 filleting marks on human and non-human remains and to approximately 120 engraved incisions observed on two artefacts from Gough’s Cave. The new macro- and micro-morphometric analyses of the marks, as well as further comparisons with French Middle Magdalenian engraved artefacts, suggest that these modifications are the result of intentional engraving. The engraved motif comfortably fits within a Magdalenian pattern of design; what is exceptional in this case, however, is the choice of raw material (human bone) and the cannibalistic context in which it was produced. The sequence of the manipulations suggests that the engraving was a purposeful component of the cannibalistic practice, implying a complex ritualistic funerary behaviour that has never before been recognized for the Palaeolithic period.

Communities of Mortuary Practice: A Renewed Study of the Tianma-Qucun Western Zhou Cemetery

Western Zhou archaeology (1046–771 bc) is dominated by cemetery- and mortuary-related data. To date most studies have relied on later historical narratives and focused on the investigation of elites and their mortuary practices. This paper sets out to provide a renewed approach to the study of Western Zhou cemeteries by looking at the graveyard as a whole and with it the relationship between the commoners and nobles who were buried in them. Its case study is the important site of Tianma-Qucun, located in modern-day Shanxi province, the residential site and burial ground of the Jin state during the Western Zhou period. We provide a community-focused study of mortuary practices aimed at uncovering local-specific shared ways of doings things. This approach not only affords a refined vision of Western Zhou mortuary ritual and practice, but also one where local variation and appropriations can be appreciated as well. Thus, while common Zhou mortuary traditions should be understood to have been of greater import to Zhou elites, their impact on the lower echelons of society remains less clear. By examining the mortuary practices of individual communities, we aim to uncover these site-specific manifestations in their larger contexts.

The digital double burial: resurrecting Hertz in the digital age

This article is intended as a comparative, yet speculative exercise. It seeks to consider how Robert Hertz’s 1907 analysis of the double burial in Dayak society might be used to integrate and guide studies of death in the contemporary American digital age. Over the last decade, scholars have begun to explore how experiences of loss, mourning and memorialisation are changing in the digital age. These inquiries, however, have rarely been situated within the classical anthropological literature on death and mortuary ritual. In revisiting Hertz’s essay, my goal is to not only propose some future directions for anthropological research, but also to suggest that in the digital age American ways of mourning the dead might be increasingly similar to those of the Dayak. That is, I want to consider the possibility that we might be witnessing the emergence of the digital double burial.

MOIETIES AND MORTUARY MOUNDS: DUALISM AT A MOUND AND ENCLOSURE COMPLEX IN THE SOUTHERN BRAZILIAN HIGHLANDS

Excavations at Abreu Garcia provide a detailed case study of a mound and enclosure mortuary complex used by the southern proto-Jê in the southern Brazilian highlands. The recovery of 16 secondary cremation deposits within a single mound allows an in-depth discussion of spatial aspects of mortuary practices. A spatial division in the placement of the interments adds another level of duality to the mortuary landscape, which comprises: (1) paired mound and enclosures, (2) twin mounds within a mound and enclosure, and (3) the dual division in the mound interior. The multiple levels of nested asymmetric dualism evoke similarities to the moiety system that characterizes modern southern Jê groups, highlighting both the opposition and the complementarity of the social system. The findings offer deeper insight into fundamental aspects of southern proto-Jê social organization, including the dual nature of the community, the manifestation of social structure in the landscape, and its incorporation into mortuary ritual. The results have implications for research design and developing appropriate methodologies to answer culture-specific questions. Furthermore, the parallels among archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography enable an understanding of the foundation of modern descendent groups and an assessment of the continuity in indigenous culture beyond European contact.

FEASTING, RITUAL PRACTICES, SOCIAL MEMORY, AND PERSISTENT PLACES: NEW INTERPRETATIONS OF SHELL MOUNDS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Shell mounds have not been investigated as prominent ritual features in southern California, despite evidence to the contrary. The largest extant shell mound in the region is on Santa Cruz Island, measures 270 by 210 m (44,532 m² in area), is 8 m higher than the terrace it rests on, is covered with 50 house depressions, and dates to 6000–2500 B.P. In the 1920s, three cemeteries were excavated at the top of El Montón; one young woman stood out among the over 200 individuals in that she was buried with 157 stone effigies. Analysis of multiple lines of evidence, including stratigraphic profiles of features, 85 radiocarbon dates, ground penetrating radar, and mortuary data, supports my claim that the mound was a persistent place where early visitors had significant feasts, constructed dwellings, buried their dead, and performed ceremonies where select groups of infants, children, and adults were revered. These mortuary rites conveyed the symbolic power of the place and created a history of events that became part of a mythical and real past that was repeatedly visited, modified, and (re)interpreted as social relationships were reinforced. This study supports the idea that shell mounds are socially constructed landscapes, not just accumulations of refuse.

Coins for the Dead, Money on the Floor: Mortuary Ritual in Bahian Candomblé

Coins for the Dead, Money on the Floor: Mortuary Ritual in Bahian Candomblé

How the Tiwi Construct the Deceased’s Postself in Mortuary Ritual

ABSTRACTIn this paper I will discuss Tiwi mortuary rites as a transformative, relational process in which the deceased’s postself is created. The deceased’s self is fashioned and manifested after death through a series of ritual practices performed by specific relatives. This approach allows me not only to stress the concern Tiwi people show about being remembered after death but also how this concern defines each participant’s ceremonial role and constitutes one of the mortuary ritual’s major aims. The deceased will be remembered as portrayed in the final rites.

Remembering and Recreating Origins: The Transformation of a Tradition of Canonical Parallelism among the Rotenese of Eastern Indonesia

Remembering and Recreating Origins:The Transformation of a Tradition of Canonical Parallelism among the Rotenese of Eastern Indonesia1 James J. Fox (bio) Personal Prefatory Remarks I have been studying an oral tradition of strict canonical parallelism intermittently for nearly half a century. I began my research on this oral tradition based on the island of Rote in eastern Indonesia in 1965, and have continued these efforts, now with greater urgency, to the present. I have also been investigating issues in comparative parallelism for roughly the same period of time. In 2014 I published Explorations in Semantic Parallelism, which marked an important stage in this research. This volume is a collection of papers both new and old. For example, I reprinted my first survey of the field in 1977 published in honor of Roman Jakobson together with a longer paper on the "trajectory" of subsequent and continuing developments in the study of parallelism. Explorations in Semantic Parallelism also reprints several of my papers on the study of the Rotenese tradition of canonical parallelism together with various papers that continue to extend my study of this tradition. My personal understanding of the Rotenese tradition of canonical composition has grown over several decades, while the tradition itself has been undergoing change. My perceptions of this change are intimately linked to my increasing comprehension of the tradition as a whole. In this paper I take stock of the work on that tradition to date and to put it into perspective. I also describe the changes that have occurred in the tradition over the course of my research as I gradually gained new perceptions of its fundamental underpinnings. Much of my general research on Rote has been historically oriented. The island has its own extensive oral historical traditions as well as Dutch archival records that date to the mid-seventeenth century. Some of the changes in Rote's traditions of parallelism that I perceive as most significant were, on good historical evidence, begun a century earlier and have now taken over as ever more influential. Introduction to the Study of Rotenese Ritual Language: The Context of Recitation For a period of roughly four decades, all my recordings of the Rotenese "ritual language" were opportunistic. They were made during the course of ongoing fieldwork, primarily in one domain on the island, that of the central domain of Termanu (see Fig. 1). Recordings often occurred at ritual gatherings but just as often they happened when an individual poet or chanter chose to provide me with a particular recitation. One attraction for such recitations was that I always made certain to have a ready supply of native palm gin, which is regarded by the Rotenese as the "water of words," and is both a stimulus and requisite for recitation.2 Although these efforts at recording could hardly be considered systematic, they were neither fortuitous nor without plan. During my first fieldwork, I was fortunate in having as my language teacher, an elder master poet, known as Old Meno, who held the ritual office of Head of the Earth. His first male grandson was born shortly after I arrived, and he was taken with the possibility offered by my Uher tape recorder of transmitting his knowledge across generations. More than any other poet whom I have recorded, he had a concern for revealing and thus possibly preserving core traditions of origin. Other poets were stirred to record by the rivalry that existed among them. The fact that I had recorded from a particular poet and let it be known that I valued that recitation would prompt other poets to want to record. Most recordings were of individuals and, if it was at all possible, I would work through the recording and transcription with that poet. Early in my fieldwork, on the advice of the elder brother of the ruler (Manek) of Termanu, I declared an interest in recording a particular text, Suti Solo do Bina Bane. This became a kind of key signature text that I recorded from many poets over the years. I also sponsored particular mortuary rituals at which recitation was required. Chanters would come to perform and, as was once the case throughout the island...

Cultural factors that affected the spatial and temporal epidemiology of kuru.

Kuru is a prion disease which became epidemic among the Fore and surrounding linguistic groups in Papua New Guinea, peaking in the late 1950s. It was transmitted during the transumption (endocannibalism) of dead family members at mortuary feasts. In this study, we aimed to explain the historical spread and the changing epidemiological patterns of kuru by analysing factors that affected its transmission. We also examined what cultural group principally determined a family's behaviour during mortuary rituals. Our investigations showed that differences in mortuary practices were responsible for the initial pattern of the spread of kuru and the ultimate shape of the epidemic, and for subsequent spatio-temporal differences in the epidemiology of kuru. Before transumption stopped altogether, the South Fore continued to eat the bodies of those who had died of kuru, whereas other linguistic groups, sooner or later, stopped doing so. The linguistic group was the primary cultural group that determined behaviour but at linguistic boundaries the neighbouring group's cultural practices were often adopted. The epidemiological changes were not explained by genetic differences, but genetic studies led to an understanding of genetic susceptibility to kuru and the selection pressure imposed by kuru, and provided new insights into human history and evolution.

Protestantes brasileiros diante da morte e do luto: observações sobre rituais mortuários

Os principais traços de crenças e representações dos protestantes brasileiros de missão quanto à morte são facilmente captados no período de luto, nos rituais mortuários ou durante o enterramento. Eles se exteriorizam nas representações na forma de cânticos, na recitação de textos bíblicos, nos sermões ou nas preces emotivas. No Brasil, os protestantes se consideram antípodas do Catolicismo e do Kardecismo. Eles não acreditam no purgatório, nas missas de intercessão pelas almas ou na reencarnação. Todavia, seus rituais mortuários estão mudando e se tornam mais permeáveis ao processo de secularização. Quase não mais se realizam os velórios em templos; o discurso e a expressão das emoções são mais comedidos; aceita-se com mais frequência a doação de órgãos e a cremação; acrescentando-se um significativo desinteresse pelos cadáveres depois do sepultamento.

Emblematic and material color in the Paracas-Nasca Transition

Emblematic and esoteric uses of color combinations have been proposed for Paracas Necropolis textiles, since their first analysis in 1930 by Rebeca Carrion. While other scholars also have traced patterns of color variation among the figures repeated on large mantles, Anne Paul has contributed thorough documentation and has traced the distribution of other artifact types and design features among the gravelots. I seek to complement Paul’s work by tracing the combination of dominant color fields that communicate at great distance, and considering the interplay between the highly visible contrasts of background fields, the layers of patterned variability perceived upon approach, and the nearly invisible messages of interlace structures and yarn composition. While most previous studies have concentrated on late, Nasca-related textile assemblages, I focus on the early mortuary bundles and the relationship between textiles associated with the Topara and Paracas ceramic traditions. Comparison of predominant and exceptional styles in each Wari Kayan mortuary context with those of textiles from contemporary Ocucaje tombs reveals color schemes that indicate social identities and exchange relationships expressed in mortuary ritual.

Stone Dead: Uncovering Early Mesolithic Mortuary Rites, Hermitage, Ireland

In Europe, cremation as a burial practice is often associated with the Bronze Age, but examples of cremated human remains are in fact known from the Palaeolithic onwards. Unlike conventional inhumation, cremation destroys most of the evidence we can use to reconstruct the biography of the buried individual. Remarkably, in Ireland, cremation is used for the earliest recorded human burial and grave assemblage (7530–7320 bc) located on the banks of the River Shannon, at Hermitage, County Limerick. While we are unable to reconstruct in any great detail the biography of this individual, we have examined the biography of a polished stone adzehead interred with their remains. To our knowledge, this adze represents the earliest securely dated polished axe or adze in Europe. Microscopic analysis reveals that the adze was commissioned for burial, with a short duration of use indicating its employment in funerary rites. Before its deposition into the grave it was intentionally blunted, effectively ending its use-life: analogous to the death of the individual it accompanied. The microwear traces on this adze thus provide a rare insight into early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer belief systems surrounding death, whereby tools played an integral part in mortuary rites and were seen as fundamental pieces of equipment for a successful afterlife.

Red pigments and Boraginaceae leaves in mortuary ritual of late Neolithic China: A case study of Shengedaliang site.

Investigation of mortuary ritual is an important method to reconstruct many aspects of past societies. Due to the lack of relevant analytical work, little evidence related to organic materials in a burial can be found in China. Here we report materials collected from a burial during the excavation of the Shengedaliang site. The recovered materials were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and plant analysis: flotation, pollen and phytolith analysis. The red pigments found scattered over the human remains were identified as cinnabar. Extracted phytoliths associated with the burial are mainly leaves from the Boraginaceae family. This is the first time that a covering of leaves have been identified with a burial in Neolithic China. The presence of "special" leaves fossil may indicate a type of "plant worship" and the identification of an important plant used in traditional Chinese medicine. The finding of the two materials allows us to better identify indicators of funerary ritual and its relationship to social inequality.

Violence and Perimortem Signaling among Early Irrigation Communities in the Sonoran Desert

Violence is common among small-scale societies and often stems from a combination of exogenous and endogenous factors. We suggest that socialization for violence and revenge as a motivation can encourage costly signaling by warriors and contribute to the creation of atypical burials in archaeological contexts. We characterize mortuary patterns among early irrigation communities in the Sonoran Desert of the southwest United States/northwest Mexico (Early Agricultural period: 2100 BC–AD 50) to define normative mortuary practices and identify atypical burials. One of the principle roles the performance of mortuary rituals fulfills is to publicly integrate a shared identity or reinforce social differences within a community. This postmortem negotiation of social identities was likely an important component to ease social tensions in early farming communities. However, atypical burials from these sites appear to represent acts of violence upon the corpse at, or after, the death of the individual that fall outs...

The shaman hunts and the postwar revival and reinvention of Okinawan shamanism

In the 1930s and 1940s shaman hunts (yutagari) were conducted by the Japanese Special Higher Police in Okinawa, Japan's most southern and remote prefecture. This was not the first time that attempts had been made to remove these women from Okinawan society. The fact that the yuta were hunted down and incarcerated, driven underground, and in some cases executed says much about how influential and threatening Japanese authorities perceived them to be. At the end of the Battle of Okinawa, more than one quarter of all Okinawan civilians were dead, and in many cases their remains were unrecoverable due to the extent of the destruction. The absence of appropriate mortuary rituals and religious specialists to perform these rituals, many of whom had been removed by authorities, led to severe spiritual dislocation for many Okinawans. In the chaotic postwar environment a path was opened for the revival of the previously hunted shamans to treat those who had suffered physical, family and spiritual loss, through providing help for these clients in dealing with settling the unsatisfied dead. It also led to the emergence of the ‘new’ yuta, those shamans who followed different routes to becoming religious advisors. This paper first outlines some of the circumstances that led to the shaman hunts, and then assesses the role of the Battle of Okinawa and its aftermath in rehabilitating shamanism in postwar society.

Funerary Variability in Late Eighth-Century B.C.E. Attica (Late Geometric II)

Attic mortuary practices of the last three decades of the eighth century B.C.E. (Late Geometric [LG] II) are principally marked by the dominance for adults of inhumation over cremation. Nevertheless, this transformation was not universally applied at all burial sites in Attica. Instead, funerary rites present a high degree of variability unprecedented in earlier periods. The Late Geometric burial record has been considered in certain quarters to be a reflection of the changes in contemporary social structures affected by the emergence of the polis. The collection and study of all LG II funerary evidence, not only that from Athens or the well-excavated and published necropoleis of Attica, lead to several interesting observations that demand a reconsideration of the attested funerary variability and the proposed interpretations. The treatment of the deceased seems to have largely depended on their age, with all age groups represented in the organized necropoleis. Thus, the discerned horizontal dimension of the mortuary rites needs to be addressed within the framework of contemporary Attic social developments.

The kiss of death: three tests of the relationship between disease threat and ritualized physical contact within traditional cultures

The direct adaptive impact of rituals and other forms of behavior dictated or shaped by culture may be one factor influencing their persistence or lack thereof over time. Given that physical contact is a common means through which transmissible disease is spread, we explored the possibility that levels of normative physical contact would be negatively associated with levels of infectious disease prevalence. We tested this prediction across three domains of such behavior – greetings, romantic kissing, and mortuary rituals – by compiling ethnographic information on normative behavior in traditional cultures and comparing it with epidemiological estimates of pathogen prevalence. We find small but significant negative correlations between pathogen prevalence and both greetings and romantic kissing. Ancillary analyses suggest that these relationships are driven by human-transmitted pathogens. The relationship between pathogen prevalence and mortuary rituals is non-significant. Causal mechanisms that may account for these results, as well as implications and limitations, are discussed.

Some Remarkable Amulets in Ancient Egyptian Art

to provide him with special characteristics, such as health, strength or fierceness. Amulets were often in the shape of animals, plants, sacred objects, or hieroglyphic symbols, natural or manmade objects, the commonest of all is faience. The power and effectiveness of a natural amulet might derive from its shape, its material, its color, and its scarcity, or any combination of these properties. Amulets were made of different kinds of stone like lapis lazuli, carnelian, red or green jasper, hematite, steatite, beryl, serpentine, gold and limestone. Manmade amulets include pendants in the form of deities, demons, animals, plants, parts of the human body, furniture, tools and ritual objects. Some of these amulets are simply miniature models of things which the deceased needed or desired in the afterlife. A distinction is sometimes made between amulets and talismans; the purpose of an amulet is to protect, while the purpose of a talisman is to enhance a quality in the wearer or to promote success. The potency of amulets was recognized in the religious ceremonies and rituals especially those relating to funerary and mortuary rites. Several spells in the Book of the Dead were intended to be spoken over specific amulets, which were then placed in particular places on the body of the deceased.

Asian American religious cultures

A resource ideal for students as well as general readers, this two-volume encyclopedia examines the diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander spiritual experience. * Covers both common motifs in Asian American religious culture, such as Chinese New Year festivals and mortuary rituals, as well as many newly established faith traditions * Contains entries on rarely addressed topics within Asian American religion, such as Hezhen Shamanism

Fragments of death. A taphonomic study of human remains from Neolithic Orkney

Recognition of tremendous variation in the treatment of the dead, both temporally and geographically, has done little to curtail the pursuit of homogenous mortuary rites for monuments which appear, by virtue of their architecture, to be similar. This is aptly demonstrated in considering the Neolithic tombs of Orkney, Scotland. The Orcadian human bone assemblages represent the largest volume for this time period from Britain – a significant resource. However, discrete skeletons are lacking, the researcher being presented with formidable volumes of disarticulated and commingled remains. Themes of transformation, fragmentation and manipulation of the body permeate the literature, conferring significance on the tombs as places of transition. Previously, the inherent complexity of the remains has made them an unattractive proposition for detailed study. New interpretations are derived from examination of excavation reports, rather than the material itself. However, advances in taphonomic analysis means techniques now exist for approaching such complex assemblages. A study has now been successfully carried out on the Orcadian remains, uncovering a wealth of new data. This data draws attention to subtle variations in practice between and within tombs, and advocates for a dramatic reconsideration of the current understanding of the practices and cosmologies associated with these enigmatic structures.