Uniting the archaeological body: the bioarchaeological investigation of human remains and mortuary behaviors

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.

Bioarchaeology has the unique power to deeply investigate mortuary space not only to identify lived experiences from human remains but also to illuminate elements of mortuary ritual. However, these two aspects of bioarchaeology still remain conceptually separated: one is biological and the other socio-cultural, one is scientific and the other theoretical, one is lab-based, the other is field-based. To move the discipline forward, scholars need to unite these two halves of the archaeological body through recognizing their dual role as arenas for expressing social identity, economic status, commemoration, and the reality of death. This paper explores how the human body and the mortuary context share biological, representational, and material foundations (Sofaer 2006) and how an integrated investigation of the material nature of the corpse and behaviors associated with its treatment generate a multifaceted, nuanced view of ancient communities and their social and cultural processes.

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): 25532