Ancestors and the archaeology of death and burial

Ancestor veneration/cult/worship Anthropology and Archaeology of Death, Burial, and Mortuary Rites Study of Religion, Sociology and History reactions to death commemoration social memory identity funerary and mortuary practices rituals & offerings = performance & material culture mortuary landscapes = the arena of death > in short the relationship between death, memory and material culture – burials, beliefs and bodies!

3)material terms > what ancestral monuments and landscapes can tell about the agency of the dead – claims to territory and political supremacy – specific locations and tools related to ancestor veneration Three different angles 1)individual’s point of view > what death provoked in terms of emotional responses - grief, mourning, loss - death as a social disruption and strategies of coping 2)communal perspective > what the creation of social memory implied for the identity of a community and its subsequent actions, relationship between the dead and specific groups such as families, clans, and elites

meaning of the terms: > ‘ancestor’: any person from whom one’s father or mother is descended or someone who has procreated, died, but has descendants who remember him/her Oxford Handy Dictionary Origin and definition of the involved terms origin of the word ‘ancestor’: from Latin: ‘ante’ – before and ‘cedere’ – go > ‘worship’: adore as divine > ‘cult’: religious practices, as expressed in ceremonies > ‘ancestor worship/veneration/cult’: rites and beliefs concerning deceased kinsmen > ‘veneration’: deep respect, warm approbation

Ancestor worship most important characteristics Ancestor worship is conducted through: > personal devotions of individuals or families in the domestic or funerary sphere such as periodic rites on the death day of the deceased > periodic rites of a kinship group in a community sphere such as in a neighborhood chapel that can be coupled with annual rites for the collectivity of ancestors Ancestor worship is closely linked to: > cosmology and worldview, to ideas of the soul and the afterlife > a society’s regulation of inheritance and succession > the authority of elders, to support social control Ancestors may be regarded as possessing power: > equivalent to that of a deity and hence may be accorded cult status > to communicate with gods and function as intermediaries > to grant boons or allay misfortune

Ancestors can: > manifest in material objects such as figurines, masks, or simple stones > be evoked by name > be reborn Ancestor worship most important characteristics Important in the veneration of ancestors is: > the communion with the ancestor, the dead present among the living > offering and libation > sharing of meals, feasting

Mortuary rituals can take on a wide variety of forms: > they can involve one single, or many sequential phases > they can involve one or many of a large variety of treatments of the body > they can be exhibitions of fear, anger, supplication, self- aggrandizement, grief, or celebration > they provide a mechanism for people and societies to cope with death—both the loss of a social being and the emergence of a dead body that needs to be dealt with > they provide a culturally prescribed and socially accepted passage from one defined social identity (in life) to another equally defined social identity (in death) > they can structure relationships of status, power, and inequality in the living society Anthropology and Archaeology of Death, Burial, and Mortuary Rites

But cultural beliefs, meaning, and symbols on the other hand, are difficult to read in the archaeological record! Mortuary practice can be measured and analyzed along a number of fairly evident dimensions: > quality and rareness of an interred item > quantity of items interred > skill and time needed for the production of an interred item > amount of material labor investment in the completion of burial > gender association of an interred item Anthropology and Archaeology of Death, Burial, and Mortuary Rites

History of the Anthropology and Archaeology of Death, Burial, and Mortuary Rites Kroeber 1927 Hertz 1960 Van Gennep 1960 Ucko 1969 Goody 1962 Bloch 1971

History of the Anthropology and Archaeology of Death, Burial, and Mortuary Rites Brown 1971 Saxe 1970 Hodder 1982 Parker Pearson 1999

History of the Anthropology and Archaeology of Death, Burial, and Mortuary Rites Chapman et al Humphreys and King 1981 Beck 1995 Rakita and Buikstra 2005

History of the Anthropology and Archaeology of Death, Burial, and Mortuary Rites Robben 2004 Insoll 2011 Nilsson Stutz-Tarlow 2013

History of the Study of Religion, Sociology and History Fustel de Coulanges 1877 Fortes 1959 Freud 1913 Spencer 1876 Durkheim 1965 Bell 1992