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Mortuary Features and Identity Construction in an Early Village Community in the American Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James M. Potter  and
Elizabeth M. Perry
James M. Potter
Affiliation:
PaleoWest Archaeology, 2460 W. 26th Avenue, Suite 15C, Denver, Colorado 80211 ([email protected])
Elizabeth M. Perry
Affiliation:
SWCA Environmental Consultants, 434 NW Sixth Avenue, Suite 304, Portland, Oregon, 97209 (eperry @ swca.com)
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Abstract

In this paper we examine some of the relationships among mortuary features, individual identities, and group identities in the context of the Ridges Basin community, one of the earliest village communities in the American Southwest. Architectural and biodistance data suggest that more than one ethnic group composed the Ridges Basin Pueblo I community and that these groups occupied different house clusters throughout the basin. Mortuary data are examined for patterning in body arrangement, context of interment, and treatment to corroborate the presence of different groups within this community. Results indicate that groups and individuals performed mortuary rituals and incorporated particular rare and exotic items that aided in the construction of personal identities, particularly gendered identities, and that ultimately came to represent and reify group distinctions. It is suggested that, in early villages, elaborations of both gender and ethnicity in mortuary contexts provided accessible and highly visible and noticeable avenues of distinction in the absence of formally instituted leadership and group identity categories.

Resumen

Resumen

En éste artículo examinamos las relaciones entre rasgos mortuorios, identidades individuales, e identidades comunales en el contexto de la comunidad prehispánica de Ridges Basin, una de las comunidades aldeanas más tempranas dei Sudoeste Norteamericano. Datos de arquitectura y biodistancia indican que Ia comunidad de Ridges Basin en la época Pueblo I comprendia múltiples grupos étnicos y que estos grupos ocupaban diversos áreas habitacionales dentro del área de estudio. Se examinan datos mortuorios con el fin de identificar padrone s de posición del cuerpo, contexto, y tratamiento, y los resultados corroboran Ia presencia de diversos grupos étnicos en la comunidad. Resulta que grupos e individuales realizaban ritos mortuorios e utilizaban objetos valiosos e exóticos en la construcción de identidades personales, particularmente identidades de género. Estos bienes ultimament llegaron a representar y reificar distinciones entre diversos grupos. Sugerimos que en aldeas tempranas Ia elaboración de género y de etnicidad en contextos mortuorios representaba una posibilidad de distinción social muy accesible, visible, y notable en la ausencia de instituciones de liderazgo formalmente instituido o de identidades comunales bien establecidas.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 529 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2011

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