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Unpacking Personhood and Funerary Customs in the Hohokam Area of Southern Arizona
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Abstract
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.
Résumé
Cambios en la conception del personhood son examinados a través del análisis de las costumbres funerarias de diez sitios arqueológicos Hohokam del periodo Preclásico (700-1150 d.C.) y Clásico (1150-1450/1500 d.C.) en el sur de Arizona. Los resultados indican que ciertos aspectos del personhood no cambiaron a través del tiempo. Sin embargo, al analizar del ritual de la cremación fue posible inferir que otros aspectos del personhood cambiaron. En el Preclásico los cuerpos eran quemados y los fragmentos de hueso se distribuían como posesiones inalienables entre familias y diferentes redes sociales. Esta práctica sugiere un self relational, parte-persona y parte-objeto. En el periodo Clásico, esta práctica disminuye y los fragmentos de hueso son colocados en depósitos secundarios y no se distribuyen. La percepción del personhood en el Clásico cambia, y se considera una unidad completa y delimitada. Es posible que el cambio ocurrido a través del tiempo fuera el resultado de una disminución de las redes conmemorativas. El cambio en el ritual fúnebre es similar a cambios generates a nivel sociopolítico observados en el periodo Clásico, en donde ocurre un incremento en diferenciación y complejidad social.
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- Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2015
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