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Grief and Burial in the American Southwest: The Role of Evolutionary Theory in the Interpretation of Mortuary Remains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Douglas H. MacDonald
Douglas H. MacDonald*
Affiliation:
GAI Consultants, Inc., 570 Beatty Road, Monroeville, PA, 15146- 1300
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Abstract

Evolutionary theory, in consort with Marxism and processualism, provides new insights into the interpretation of grave-good variation. Processual interpretations of burial sites in the American Southwest cite age, sex, or social rank as the main determinants of burial-good variation. Marxist theorists suggest that mortuary ritual mediates social tension between an egalitarian mindset and an existing social inequality. Evolutionary theory provides a supplementary explanatory framework. Recent studies guided by kin-selection theory suggest that humans grieve more for individuals of high reproductive value and genetic relatedness. Ethnographic examples also show that individuals mourn more intensively and, thus, place more social emphasis on burials of individuals of highest reproductive value (young adults). Analysis of grave goods from La Ciudad, a Hohokam site in the American Southwest, supports the hypothesis that labor value, reproductive value, and grief contributed to grave-good differentiation. At La Ciudad, individuals between the ages of 10 and 20 possessed more and higher-quality grave goods on average than any other age group. Grief at the loss of a young adult of high reproductive and labor value may facilitate explanation of mortuary variation at La Ciudad, as well as other sites in the greater Southwest and beyond.

Résumé

Résumé

La teoría de evolutión, en conjunto con el Marxismo y el procesualismo, proporciona nuevas luces en la interpretatión de la variabilidad las ofrendas funerarias. Las interpretaciones procesuales de sitios de entierros en el suroeste de los Estados Unidos titan edad, sexo o la categoría social como determinantes principales de la variabilidad de las ofrendas funerarias. Los teóricos marxistas sugieren que el rito mortuorio equipara la tensión social entre un estado mental igualitario y una desigualdad social existente. La teoría de evolución proporciona un marco complementario, con el cual sepuede examinar el problema. Estudios recientes guiados por la teoria de la selectión de parentesco sugieren que los humanos se afligen más por los individuos con alta capacidadpara reproducirse y con los cuales estdn geneticamente relacionados. Ejemplos de etnografía muestran también que la gente lamenta más intensamente y pone más énfasis social en losfunerales de las personas de mayor capacidadpara reproducirse (adultosjóvenes). El análisis de funerales de La Ciudad, un sitio de los Hohokam en el suroeste de los Estados Unidos, apoya la hipótesis de que el valor laboral, la capacidad reproductiva y el duelo contribuyeron a las distinciones funerarias. En La Ciudad, los individuos entre las edades de 10 y 20 años tuvieron mayor calidad de tumbas en promedio que los de cualquier otra edad. El duelo por la pérdida de un adulto joven de alto valor reproductivo y laboral puede explicar la variatión mortuaria en La Ciudad, así como en otros sitios del gran suroeste de los Estados Unidos y de más allá.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , October 2001 , pp. 704 - 714
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2001

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