Reconsidering the Personhood of Gravettian Infants

Bibliographic Data

ID2227504
AuthorsA Nowell (0000-0002-1103-2919, University of Victoria, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume76
Issue2
Pages232-250
Publication date2020-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/708395
OpenAlexW3034712296
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited60

There is a widely held belief among archaeologists that the paucity of infant burials in the European Gravettian (ca. 33,000–22,000 cal. bp) can be attributed to societal attitudes toward these young individuals. Specifically, it has been argued that infants were “discriminated” against by members of Gravettian society who did not consider infants as “people” until after weaning. Infants who died before this process was complete were not worthy of burial. This paper challenges this characterization of Gravettian infants by considering a wide range of taphonomic factors, drawing on newly discovered as well as existing but reinterpreted burial data, and contextualizing infant burials within the larger context of Gravettian burial practices. It concludes that at certain times and certain places, some Gravettian peoples buried their infants, and when they did, it was with great care and likely with great emotion at their passing

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Ethnology · Geography · Personhood · Political science · Taphonomy · Weaning · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Law · Medicine · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

Tools

Open DOI