Archaeology of Death across the International Border: Research among the Hohokam and Trincheras Archaeological Groups

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Future of Bioarchaeology in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this paper, I will explore similarities and differences between mortuary practices and concepts of embodiment of the dead from Hohokam Classic Period (AD 1150 to 1450/1500) sites in the Tucson Basin and from the Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora (ca. AD 1300 to 1450). I will discuss challenges and opportunities for conducting bioarchaeology research across the international border where archaeological practices and treatment of human remains have varied across time and space. The Hohokam and the Trincheras Tradition of northern Mexico are two relatively close archaeological culture areas operating within different social networks. Both the Classic Period Hohokam from the Tucson Basin and the Trincheras people cremated their dead as the main funerary custom. Very different from the Hohokam from the Phoenix Basin where inhumation was their main funerary custom. Results from burial treatment research on remains from Cerro de Trincheras and the Tucson Basin Hohokam suggest that they are fundamentally similar in how they treat the bodies of the dead and likely also concepts of embodiment, but different in how the dead are transformed through the life and death continuum. These are different from the Phoenix basin where probably concepts of embodiment were changing at a different rate.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Future of Bioarchaeology in Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24657