Libraries of the Dead: Early Bronze Age Charnel Houses and Social Identity at Urban Bab edh-Dhra', Jordan

Human corpse manipulation and the body as symbol: A case study from the Eastern Pampa–Patagonia transition (Argentina) during the Final Late Holocene

“…In this sense, secondary mortuary rituals may include multiple levels of social organization, including band-level, co-resident groups, corporate kin groups, and corporate group structures in the form of lineal descent systems (e.g., lineages), which emphasize the community over the individual (Kuijt, 1996, p. 318). In this case, the body is not the product of the individual but a social and communal endeavor included within a wider framework of beliefs and human action (Chesson, 1999;Goodale, 1985;Hertz, 1960, p. 86;Kuijt, 1996, p. 318;Morris, 1991).…”

“…According to Chesson (1999), secondary mortuary rituals include a strong communicative act (see also Bradley, 1991). Weiner (1976) argues that secondary mortuary rituals are part of spectacular moments of visual communication in which participants can access, resist, and renegotiate their relationship in the context of reaffirming the structure and cosmology of the community.…”

“…The skeleton, then, does not play a passive role but rather is active. The body is used as a symbol (Bowie, 2006;Sofaer, 2006) to represent beliefs, social and political hierarchies, values, sense of membership, and the social identity of individuals and communities (Chesson, 1999;Goodale, 1985;Hertz, 1960;Schroeder, 2001).…”

“…Body manipulation can be diverse and triggered by social, environmental and historical factors (Carr, 1995;Chesson, 1999;Kuijt, 1996). Postmortem alteration of the body may involve partial or total removal of certain skeletal parts, dismembering and defleshing, painting, cremation, and so on (Hertz, 1960;Larsson, 2003).…”

An Acquired Taste: Emulation and Indigenization of Cattle Forelimbs in the Southern Levant

“…The material record of the EBA suggests that social identity was more likely formed along two fundamental lines: kinship affiliation, which is made clear by large cemeteries divided along networks of kinship (Chesson 1999;Harrison 2001); and local or regional economic relations, which are apparent from the circulation of locally sourced and produced goods within regional exchange networks (Milevski 2011). Kinship and local exchange, rather than status, emerge as salient dimensions that most likely contributed to the formation and expression of social identity in the southern Levantine EBA.…”