Recognizing Ritual Action and Intent in Communal Mourning Features on the Southern California Coast

Abstract

Recent excavations at two sites located along the coastal margin of the Los Angeles basin revealed three features created as a result of communal mourning ritual during the Intermediate Period (ca. 3000–1000 cal B.P.). Detailed analysis of constituents, structure, and context indicates that formation of these dense concentrations of ground stone implements, unmodified cobbles, other artifacts, and cremated human remains involved deliberate equipment production, sequential implement fragmentation and treatment including burning and pigmentation of items, and secondary interment of incomplete objects and bodies in pits within locales often used for this purpose over many generations. The large size and evident manipulation of objects as part of communal mourning ritual indicates that actions would have been readily visible to a gathered assembly. Thus, while the meaning and significance of these practices remains to be thoroughly explored, the data suggest that communal mourning ritual may have played a significant role in community-building and the maintenance of identity within a region with a dynamic population history.

Native American Consumption of Shell and Glass Beads at Mission Santa Clara De Asís

“…Consumption also requires that we consider how people actually used and gave meaning to the items they acquired. If the intentional pit deposits in the mission rancheria can be tentatively interpreted as evidence of mourning ceremonies {sensu Hull et al 2013) or the ritual destruction of property of the deceased, then the vast majority of beads recovered from Mission Santa Clara are from contexts associated with death, burial, and mourning. This is consistent with the use of shell beads in late precontact times, when people are believed to have used bead wealth as way to attain and display status in both life and death (Milliken et al 2007).…”

“…Native people may have used these features in mourning ceremonies (cf. Hull 2011;Hull et al 2013) and/or as part of the ritual destruction of the property of deceased individuals, a practice recorded at Mission Santa Clara (Skowronek 1998:685). The depositional contexts under consideration are described below; bead data from each context are presented in Tables 2 and 3.…”

A Comparison of Mortuary Practices among the Tucson Basin Hohokam and Trincheras Traditions

“…Cremation was widely practiced in prehispanic times and has more recently increased in popularity among modern populations (Murad 1998). For example, cremation practices were relatively widespread among early Eastern and Midwestern groups (e.g., Baby 1954; Binford 1963; Goldstein and Meyers 2014; Robinson 1996; Sanger et al 2019; Schurr and Cook 2014; Webb and Snow 1945) and among various groups in California (Hull et al 2013). In the southwest United States, cremation customs have also been explored among various archaeological groups (e.g., Beck 2005; Brunson-Hadley 1994; Creel 1989; Merbs 1967; Reinhard and Fink 1982, 1994; Reinhard and Shipman 1978; Rice 2016; Robinson and Sprague 1965; Toulouse 1944).…”

Sin retorno. Sujetos/objetos partidos

“…Es decir, la destrucción puede ser intencional y generativa, donde el 'dar muerte' a las cosas constituye una manera más en que una sociedad se construye a sí misma (e.g. Brück 2006, Hull, Douglass y York 2013, Küchler 1988).…”

“…UU. se han reconocido actos de destrucción intencional con motivos de ritos de duelo (Hull, Douglass y York 2013). En el mismo Noroeste Argentino (NOA), hay evidencias de incendios de casas y sitios correspondientes a distintos períodos y contextos (Gordillo 2013).…”