BODIES AMONG FRAGMENTS: NON-NORMATIVE INHUMATIONS AMONG THE PRECLASSIC AND CLASSIC PERIOD HOHOKAM IN THE TUCSON BASIN

Summary

Inhumation and cremation usually are studied in isolation regardless of the fact that they may be practiced in the same culture and time period. Among the Tucson Basin Hohokam in the Prehispanic American Southwest cremation was the main funeral custom and normative and non-normative inhumations were practiced with very low frequencies throughout the Preclassic (A.D. 700-1150) and Classic (A.D. 1150-1450/1500) periods. This paper explores changes through time in non-normative burial customs of inhumation from ten Tucson Basin (Arizona) Hohokam archaeological sites. This is done by exploring both biological reconstruction of bodies and posthumous treatments within and between sites. Inhumations are contrasted with cremations to explore how they are related but also distinct practices of remembrance. It is argued that critical and contextualized approaches to the study of non-normative burials are necessary in order to reconstruct the complexity of funeral customs and their associated cultural significance through time. The results provide a glimpse of social variation and multiple social groups within the Tucson Basin Hohokam sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Poetics of Processing: Memory formation, cosmology and the handling of the dead

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