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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2655729
AutoresJessica I Cerezo-Román (0000-0002-7752-8079, Harvard University, autor correspondente)
Ano2015
Volume80
Fascículo2
Páginas353-375
Data de publicação2015-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.7183/0002-7316.80.2.353
OpenAlexW2320767025
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14
Referências citadas50

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

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Period (music) · Personhood · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law