time in the reproduction of mortuary practices

8/10/2019 Time in the Reproduction of Mortuary Practices

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/time-in-the-reproduction-of-mortuary-practices 1/14

Time in the Reproduction of Mortuary PracticesAuthor(s): Koji MizoguchiSource: World Archaeology, Vol. 25, No. 2, Conceptions of Time and Ancient Society (Oct.,1993), pp. 223-235Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/124815 .

Accessed: 02/11/2014 12:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to World Archaeology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 143 .167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 20 14 12:21:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=taylorfrancis

http://www.jstor.org/stable/124815?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp





http://www.jstor.org/stable/124815?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=taylorfrancis



im e in th reprodu tionmortu ry pr ctices

Koji Mizoguchi

Introduction

By concentrating on static patterns, we tend to forget the flow of time through whichvarious human practices were conducted. The archaeological study of mortuary practicesis no exception. In their attempts to come up with social categories, whether they arestraightforward reflections of social organization (e.g. Saxe 1970) or ideological construc-tions (e.g. Shennan 1982), the normative, processual and post-processual archaeologieshave all failed to appreciate the role of human practices which shaped their materialevidences in the reproduction of social structures. By social structures I mean the ways inwhich relationships between people, and between people and material categories, are heldtogether over periods of time (Giddens 1984: 16-28).

If we are toappreciate

theimportance

of humanpractices through time,

notonly

in thestudy of mortuary practices but also in the study of archaeology in general, we must acceptthat all human practices are situated in unique time/space contexts (e.g. Giddens1984: 110-44). People are never free from the consequences of what they did prior to theircurrent action. Repeated action through time is 'routinized' and constrains people'sfreedom to conduct new actions. Material conditions, such as architectural structures,materialized as the consequences of previous decisions, also limit the range of freedom inthe choice of subsequent actions. However, at the same time, these constraining elementscan also be manipulated by people as 'resources' to conduct their actions (on the concept of'resources' see Giddens (1984: 33 and 373)).

The archaeology of British Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices(from the late third millennium to the early second millennium cal. BC) has followed thegeneral trend in mortuary archaeology. The presence of articulated skeletal remains inso-called 'individual burials' covered by round mounds (commonly called 'barrows') givesthe impression that we can easily 'read off' the social positions of the dead by examiningthe different ways in which they were treated. Human practices which shaped thecharacter of this evidence through time, and their role in the reproduction of socialstructures, have largely been ignored (for exceptions see Barrett (1988b: 38-9; 1990) andThomas (1991)).

In what follows, I will attempt to realign the dominant axis of the mortuary archaeology

of the period by studying the role of time and memory in the reproduction of Late

World Archaeology Volume 25 No. 2 Conceptions of Time and Ancient Society? Routledge 1993 0043-8243/93/2502/223 $3.00/1

This content downloaded from 14 3.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 20 14 12:21:37 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions






224 Koji Mizoguchi

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age burial practices in Yorkshire. As Petersen (1972) hasshown, contrary to the common image of individual burial as the dominant form of burialin the British Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, there are numerous examples in whichthe remains of more than two individuals were deposited in one grave pit (Petersen 1972;Burgess 1980: 298, fig. 7.1). In some cases such specific memories as the position of thebody, the direction of the head or the age/sex of that primary interment appear to havebeen preserved over a period of time and recalled when the secondary interment wasdeposited. Why and how was the memory preserved over a period of time and recalled,and what role did this 'remembering' play in the reproduction of social structures? Howwas the time which elapsed between the deposition of the primary interment and thesecondary interment manipulated? There appear to have been some 'rules' by which thedeposition of different categories of the dead was conducted in different time/space locales(on the notion of locale, see Giddens (1984: 116-22)). These principles also seem to havebeen enacted at grave pits later covered by mounds almost throughout our period ofinvestigation. What kind of 'social time' (Gurvitch 1964; Shanks and Tilley 1987: 130-1)was created/recreated through such repeated enactments, and what role did thoseenactments play in the constitution of social life?

Although recent writers have emphasized the importance of studying differentconstructions of time (Shanks and Tilley 1987: 126-36), archaeologists have so far failed tofind convincing cases in which the relationship between time, human practices andconsciousness can be examined. The data discussed in this paper appear to remedy thesituation. This study attempts to answer these questions by investigating the nature of theinterconnections between human practices and time. It suggests the importance ofstudying time and human practices for the theoretical development of the study ofarchaeology in general, and of mortuary archaeology in particular.

Material and the framework of analysis

Despite the fact that the majority of the available data concerning Late Neolithic and EarlyBronze Age burial was collected by antiquarians such as William Greenwell (e.g. 1877)and John R. Mortimer (e.g. 1905), Yorkshire has been a focus of British Late Neolithicand Early Bronze Age mortuary archaeology thanks to the favourable soil conditions

which preserved the skeletal remains in good condition, and the monumental publicationsby these excavators (ibid.). Although neither Greenwell nor Mortimer ever attempted toinvestigate the locations of graves and burials in a manner which allows their re-examination, their recording of the contents of individual grave pits (e.g. the sex of theskeletons and the artefacts associated with them) can be accepted as fairly reliable (Gibbs1989).

As stated above, because articulated corpses had been deposited with artefacts, it hasalways been tempting to investigate their status in life, yet mortuary practices would havebeen conducted for the living and their society (Barrett 1988b). These corpses couldneither participate in their own funerals, nor could they speak for themselves: they could

only express some message through the interpretations of the participants in their funeral.In that sense, the corpses would have been like portable artefacts, carrying bundles of







Time in the reproduction of mortuary practices 225

symbolic meanings (Mizoguchi, in press). Different memories were attached to each

corpse by different individuals. The dead person's mother, father, brothers, sisters andchildren would all have had different memories according to their personal relations withthe dead person during their life-time. From this point of view, the funeral in which these

memories were mobilized without a dead person's consent must have been the occasion atwhich specific relations between individuals were reaffirmed or even challenged throughthe re-examination of their relationship to the dead. The treatment of the dead, such as thepositioning of the body, can be thought of as a material residue of such acts. Keeping thesepoints in mind, the sex and the position of the corpses from individual grave pits have beenstudied. It should also be noted that people are never free from their past actions. Thememory traces (Giddens 1984: 45-51, 377) of how the dead were treated on past occasionsnot only would have constrained the way in which the dead were treated, but also wouldhave been drawn upon to carry out strategic actions. In that sense it is worth consideringwhether the way in which the primary interment was deposited affected the way in which

the secondary interment was treated, for this would allow us to investigate the manner inwhich memory traces constrained or enabled future actions. From this point of view, therelationship between the primary and secondary interments of multiple burials has beengiven particular attention.

Observations

In examining the contents of the central grave pits of 104 reliably recorded burial moundsfrom the region the following patterns were observed:

1. In the graves with single burials (Table 1), nearly 50 per cent of the deposits consist ofadult males. The burials of an immature individual (infant or juvenile) and an adultfemale follow (29 per cent and 15 per cent respectively).

2. In the graves with multiple burials (Table 2), the primary interment of an adult malewas most frequently followed by the secondary interment of an adult female. Lesscommonly, the primary interment of an adult male was followed by the secondaryinterment of an immature individual, or by the secondary interment of another adultmale. Although there are many other patterns, those in which an adult male appears asthe primary interment account for over 50 per cent (19 examples).

Table Interments n the single burial graves.

Pattern No. of cases %

Adult male 32 (47.8)Adult female 10 (14.9)Immature 19 (28.8)Cremation adult male) 1 (1.5)Cremation adult emale) 1 (1.5)Cremation immature) 3 (4.5)

Total 66







226 Koji Mizoguchi

Table 2 Interments in the multiple burial graves. Key: primary interment -> secondary interment.

Pattern No. of cases

Adult male - adult male 3 (10.3)Adult male -, adult female 8 (27.6)Adult male -> immature 4 (13.8)Adult male - adult (indet. sex) 1 (3.0)Adult female -> adult female 1 (3.0)Adult female - immature 1 (3.0)Adult female -- adult (indet. sex) 1 (3.0)Adult female + immature -> immature 1 (3.0)Adult (indet. sex) -> adult male 1 (3.0)Adult male cremation -- (immature) 1 (3.0)Adult male -- cremation (adult of indet. sex) 1 (3.0)Adult male-> cremation 1 (3.0)

Adult female--

cremation 1 (3.0)Immature -> cremation (adult male + adult female) 1 (3.0)Immature + immature -- cremation (adult of indet. sex) 1 (3.0)Cremation (immature) -- cremation (adult of indet. sex) 1 (3.0)Cremation -- adult female 1 (3.0)Cremation - immature (female) 1 (3.0)

Total 30

Table 3 Interments in the double burial graves.

Pattern No. of cases %

Adult male + adult male 1 (12.5)Adult male + immature 1 (12.5)Adult male + adult female 2 (25.0)Adult female + adult (indet. sex) 1 (12.5)Immature + immature 1 (12.5)Adult male + cremation (adult male) 1 (12.5)Adult female + cremation (immature) 1 (12.5)

Total 8

3. In the double burial graves (Table 3), due to a small sample size, no 'dominant' patterncan be discerned.

4. The study also considered the direction of the head and the position of the primary and

secondary interments in the individual grave pits (Fig. 1). The majority show either thesame head direction as the first burial or faced in exactly (or almost exactly) the

opposite direction (13 out of 15 examples in which the head direction of both the

primary and secondary can be identified).








Discussion

The maintenance of mortuary practices over a period of time

From these observations, the following points can be made:a. The corpse of an adult male was preferably deposited on the bottom of the grave pit.

Adult females and immature individuals were in that sense subordinate, and weremostly deposited in a secondary position (Tables 2 and 3).

b. A specific memory of the position in which s/he was deposited, as well as a generalmemory of the sex and age of the primary interment, appears to have been recalledwhen the secondary interment was created (Fig. 1).

I would first like to draw attention to the different timings in sending the dead ofdifferent categories to the afterworld. The corpse of an adult male was the one which was

most frequently deposited on the bottom of the grave pit. The corpses of adult females andimmature individuals were most likely deposited after the corpse of the adult male. It ishardly believable that their deaths always occurred naturally following the death of anadult male in a community. In that sense, the different locations for adult male, adultfemale and immature persons in grave pits would not have been natural but artificial, andcan be envisaged to have been meaningful. This reminds us that in many of theancestral/creation myths of tribal societies each specific sex/age group was given a specificposition in the narrative structure (e.g. Hugh-Jones 1979). The pattern in our data alsoresembles a kind of narrative structure in which adult male, adult female and immaturewere given different time/space positions at individual grave pits. The dead of differentcategories were sent to the afterworld at different times and were deposited in differentpositions in a grave pit (the bottom for the primary and the middle for the secondary). Thispractice could have been manipulated in mapping out different positions for differentpersons in an idealized time/space structure shared by the members of the society.

The other implication of point a) is that there is a cyclical dimension to the sequencewhich started with the deposition of the corpse of an adult male and ended with thedeposition of the corpses of either an adult female or an immature person and was'enacted' at the central grave pit of burial mounds throughout our period of study. Thisdiachronic cycle was embedded in the consciousness of the people by these very

enactments, althoughone individual would not have

experiencedthis

cycle manytimes in

his or her own life-time. Depositing particular categories of person in particular time/spacelocations within individual grave pits (if the depositions of the primary and the secondaryinterments were indeed conducted at one time (see Mortimer 1905 1lff.)) would have beenan occasion on which the cycle was experienced by the individual through different sets ofactivities at different time/space 'locales'. These included locating the corpse of theprimary interment on the bottom of a grave pit and burying it with chalk, and then locatingthe corpse of the secondary interment in the filling of the grave and covering it with morechalk (on the concept of 'locales', see Giddens (1984: 116-22)). The experience ofconducting a sequence of activities in different time/space 'locales' would, on the one

hand, have marked the difference between the primary and the secondary interments,and, on the other, have helped to inscribe this difference in the memory traces of the







228 Koji Mizoguchi

1 Adult Male

Akiam Wold 124

2 Adult

Blanch 238

2 Adult Female

Calais Wold 100 Garrowby Wold 104

1 Adult Male2 Adult Female

Garton Slack 75

1 Adult Male

1 Adult Male2 Adult Female

Garton Slack 141

1 Adult Female

2 Imm(inf)

2 Adult Female

Garton slack 152 Goodmanham 99

1 Adult Female NA

2 Adult Female

1 Adult Male

1 Adult Male

2 Adult








2 Adult Female N

A

1 Adult FemaleGoodmanham 112

1 Adult MaleGoodmanham 117

2 Adult Female

1 Adult Male

Wetwang Slack 4 Painsthorpe Wold 98

2 Adult Male

1 Adult Male

2 Adult Male

Rudston 68

2 Imm (inf)

1 Adult Male

3 Adult Female

Staxton B10 & 11

1 Adult Male

2 Adult Male

Weaverthorpe 297

Figure 1 Head directions of interments in the multiple burial graves. Key: 1 primary interment; 2

secondary interment; 3 tertiary interment.

2 Adult Female

1 Adult Male2 Imm (inf)







230 Koji Mizoguchi

Figure 2 Interments in thecentral grave pit of Heslerton

r / // 1R barrow after Powlesland

1986). Legend: A rearrangedbones of the primary nter-

v\ u~ ; f/ X~ nS\ nment (adult male); B thei ,' C - -- \ \ secondary interment (juven-

ile); C Beaker pottery de-- _ - posited with B; D grave pit

for the primary interment;E grave pit for the secorndary

\ t~~/\ ~A~/ /interment.

A I BC

o lm

participants. In this way, the conception of a cycle behind the sequence of activities wascreated/recreated. This conception of time as 'cyclical' (Gurvitch 1964: 31; Shanks andTilley 1987: 131) would also have reproduced a kind of 'static and organic imaginary model

of their society' (Bloch 1989: 15), based upon specific relations of dominance betweenadult males, adult females and young people (on the concept of 'relations of dominance',see Barrett 1988a).

We now have to turn to the implication of point b). As the example of the central gravepit of Heslerton 1R shows, the interval between the deposition of the primary intermentand that of the secondary interment was sometimes quite long. At West Heslerton(Powlesland 1986) the bones of the primary interment (an adult male) were disturbed bythe burial of a secondary interment (a juvenile of indeterminate sex) (Fig. 2). According toforensic scientists, it normally takes at least five years for the tendons connecting the bonesto rot away. At the same time, as far as observation 4) is concerned, it appears that the

head direction and the position of the primary interment were recalled and referred towhen the deposition of the secondary interment was conducted. It appears to suggest that








the memory of the primary interment (not only of the person's age and sex but also hows/he was deposited), played an important role in the mortuary practices of the period. It isshown in many ethnographic examples that particular knowledge is possessed by a specificinterest group, often based upon age and sex. The exclusive possession of such knowledge

solidifies ties among themembers of a

group and legitimates and naturalizes their specificrelations to the members of other groups in the community (e.g. Tonkinson 1988). What isparticularly interesting in these ethnographic examples is that 'rituals', such as funerals,are the occasions in which knowledge is secretly given to the new members of the group(ibid.). In these instances, knowledge is a 'resource', the exclusive mobilization of whichgives the group a dominance over other groups which do not have access to it (e.g. Giddens1984: 28-34). In our examples, the period of time over which the knowledge of the primaryinterment was preserved may now have added some additional 'value' to that memory as aresource.

The transformation of mortuary practices through time

The above account has emphasized the role played by time in mapping out differentpositions for different persons in an idealized time/space structure, and the value of'memory' as a resource through its maintenance over a lengthy period. Particular emphasishas been given to the role of time in the 'maintenance' of social structures. In what follows,the focus of interpretation is shifted to the transformation of social structures and the roleand conception of time in this process.

On an occasion at which the memory of a specific ancestor was recalled, there would bescope for more than one 'interpretation' to be put forward. Competition over dominant

interpretations would have been an arena in which pre-existing authority was challenged.However, these attempts would have to be conducted by the internalized 'rules'('structures' following Giddens (1984: 16-28); 'habitus' following Bourdieu (1990: 52-65))which past human practices had created/recreated, although, at the same time, eachpractice transformed these rules by strategic manipulation. From this point of view,individuals would have conceived of their actions as being basically the same as those oftheir predecessors, although they were unknowingly making changes in the rules (e.g.Bourdieu 1990: 52-65). A good illustration of this process of 'unintended' transformationcan also be found in our own data-set, namely, the transformation from inhumation tocremation.

In classical Beaker/Food Vessel mortuary practices (Burgess 1980: 297), cremationswere mostly deposited with inhumations, and were rarely the primary interment (ibid.).One or two heaps of cremated bones were often deposited near fleshed individual corpsesin single grave pits (e.g. Grave 1, Garton Slack 29 (Brewster 1980)). Whether the act ofcremating individuals was conducted as an episode of the inhumation funeral is quiteuncertain, but the cremation seems to have been meaningful due to its association with theinhumation rather than in its own right.

In our data-set, it is particularly interesting to note how inhumation was replaced bycremation (e.g. Etton 76 (Greenwell 1877:282; Kinnes and Longworth 1985:80);Goodmanham 86 (Greenwell 1877: 290-3; Kinnes and Longworth 1985: 82); Slingsby 144(Greenwell 1877: 351; Kinnes and Longworth 1985: 92)). The in situ cremations are







232 Koji Mizoguchi

accompanied only by a Collared vessel (Urn) or an accessory cup, and may well have beenchronologically slightly later than typical Beaker/Food Vessel graves (cf. Burgess1980: 107). In these examples, a fleshed body was positioned in an identical manner tothose in Beaker/Food Vessel burials, crouched on its side in a hollow or a pit, and then setalight. The act of cremating the dead became incorporated in the sequence of funeralpractices spatially as well as temporally, although the mortuary rite itself maintained manyof the elements of the Beaker/Food Vessel inhumation burials illustrated above.

In typical late Early Bronze Age cremation practices (e.g. The Bedd Branwen period:c. 1650-1400 cal. BC (see Burgess 1980: 115-31; 313-22)), the body was cremated on thepyre quite close to the pit in which the cremated remains were to be deposited (e.g.Wykeham Forest Barrow 1 (Brewster 1973)). Here the elements of Beaker/Food Vesselinhumation practices which in situ cremation had maintained can no longer be seen.Instead, the way in which the dead were transformed from a fleshed state to a skeleton waselaborated as an important part of the funeral and was made visually more spectacular.This change implies an increase in the number of people who could witness the scene inwhich the dead were transformed (cf. Barrett 1990: 185-6).

As Barrett has suggested, the underlying logic behind the transformation frominhumation through in situ cremation to the classic cremation can be understood in termsof an enhancement of the effectiveness of mortuary practices in the reproduction of powerrelations. It increased the number of people who could either be involved in, or witness,this activity (ibid.). Nevertheless, this enhancement would never have been explicitlyintended, felt or conceived of by the individuals involved in these practices. On eachmortuary occasion, intentional strategic action(s) could or would have been conducted.

However, their actions were conducted by the rules (structures or habitus) which had beencreated and routinized through past practices, and which were, at the same time,transformed by those practices. In this way, the rules which would have been embedded inpeople's consciousness would have been continuously transformed yet still conceived of as'unchanged', 'cyclical' or 'frozen'.

The gradual nature of the long-term transformation from inhumation to cremationduring the early centuries of the second millennium cal. BC can only be understood i nterms of the relationship between the way time was conceived of by the people whoparticipated in or conducted individual practices and the way that long-term social changescame about. This latter point can only be observed from the long-term perspective unique

to archaeology.

Concluding remarks

Throughout this paper, I have tried to show that the relationship between human practice,its conditions, and the consciousness of people can only be understood by locating eachpractice in its unique context in time and space. The consequences of past actions, such ascreated environments and the memory traces of those actions, constrain the way in whichpractices are conducted, while at the same time they are manipulated.

Within this framework, time is not an empty box. Time was marked by human practices.







234 Koji Mizoguchi

Acknowledgements

I like to thank John C. Barrett, Brian Boyd, Richard Bradley, Mark Edmonds, J. D. Hill,Ian Hodder, Robert Preucel, Julian Thomas and Sander van der Leeuw for their

commenting upon early drafts of this paper. I particularly thank Brian for correcting myEnglish as well. Sole responsibility for faults and shortcomings, of course, lies with me.

5.i.93 Department ofA rchaeologyCambridge University

References

Barrett, J. C. 1988a. Fields of discourse: reconstituting a social archaeology. Critique of

Anthropology, 7(3):5-16.

Barrett, J. C. 1988b. The living, the dead and the ancestors: Neolithic and Bronze Age mortuarypractices. In The Archaeology of Context in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Recent Trends (eds J. C.Barrett and I. Kinnes). Sheffield: Sheffield University, pp. 30-41.

Barrett, J. C. 1990. The monumentality of death: the character of early Bronze Age mortuarymounds in southern England. World Archaeology, 22(2): 179-89.

Bloch, M. 1989. Ritual, History and Power: Selected Papers in Anthropology. London: AthlonePress.

Bourdieu, P. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Brewster, T. C. M. 1973. Two Bronze Age barrows in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Yorkshire

Archaeological Journal, 45: 55-95.Brewster, T. C. M. 1980. The Excavation of Garton and Wetwang Slacks (RCHM microfiche).Witingham, Yorkshire: The East Riding Archaeological Research Committee.

Burgess, C. 1980. The Age of Stonehenge. London: Dent.

Chapman, R., Kinnes, I. and Randsborg, K. (eds) 1981. The Archaeology of Death. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Gibbs, L. 1989. Sex, gender and material culture patterning in Late Neolithic and Earlier BronzeAge England. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge,Cambridge.

Giddens, A. 1984. The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Greenwell, W. 1877. British Barrows. Oxford.

Gurvitch, G. 1964. The Spectrum of Social Time. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

Hugh-Jones, C. 1979. From the Milk River: Spatial and Temporal Process in North West Amazonia.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kinnes, I. and Longworth, I. 1985. Catalogue of the Excavated Prehistoric and Romano-BritishMaterial in the Greenwell Collection. London: British Museum.

Mizoguchi, K. In press. The 'materiality' of Wessex beakers. Scottish Archaeological Review, 9.

Mortimer, J. R. 1905. Forty Years' Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of EastYorkshire. London: A. Brown and Sons.

Petersen, F. 1972. Traditions of multiple burial in Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age England.Archaeological Journal, 129: 22-55.








Powlesland, D. 1986. Excavations at Heslerton, North Yorkshire 1978-82. Archaeological Journal,143: 53-173.

Saxe, A. 1970. Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices. Arbor: University Microfilms.

Shanks, M. and Tilley, C. 1987. Social Theory and Archaeology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Shennan, S. 1982. Ideology, change and the European Early Bronze Age. In Symbolic andStructural Archaeology (ed. I. Hodder). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 155-61.

Thomas, J. 1991. Rethinking the Neolithic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tonkinson, R. 1988. 'Ideology and domination' in Aboriginal Australia: a Western Desert test case.In Hunters and Gatherers Vol. 2. Property, Power and Ideology (eds T. Ingold et al.) New York andOxford: Berg, pp. 150-64.

Abstract

Mizoguchi, Koji

Time in the reproduction of mortuary practices

This paper argues that the archaeologist can interpret the way time was marked through humanpractices and manipulated in the reproduction of relations of dominance. It is argued that this taskcan be accomplished by moving interpretative/analytical emphasis away from the examination ofstatic patterns, and interpreting the way those variables were mobilized as symbolic resources in theproduction and maintenance of social structures. These points are discussed through the study of themortuary practices of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age East Yorkshire, England.

time in the reproduction of mortuary practices

Documents