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Mortuary Display and Status in a Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Cemetery in Manassas, Virginia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Barbara J. Little ,
Kim M. Lanphear  and
Douglas W. Owsley
Barbara J. Little
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
Kim M. Lanphear
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
Douglas W. Owsley
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
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Abstract

In this study of an Anglo-American cemetery used between the 1830s and 1907, contemporary mortuary trends and cultural attitudes toward death provide the historical context necessary to interpret variation in mortuary display. Analysis of skeletal remains provides information on dental caries, dental care, and enamel hypoplasia and allows comparison of the relatively high-status Weir family"s health with that of other population samples. Analysis of artifacts reveals four styles of grave decoration attributed not to intrasite status variability but to the appearance, peak, and decline of Victorian era cultural expressions of the "beautification" of death. Within this wider cultural trend, intersite comparisons may be made of status display. The rise and decline of the nineteenth-century ideal of the beautification of death adds vital cultural content for understanding the material expression of an observed process that is a cycle of display.

Resumen

Resumen

En este estudio de un cementerio anglo-americano utilizado entre 1830 y 1907 las tendencias en la mortandad y las actitudes culturales respecto a la muerteproveen el contexto histórico necesario para interpretar las variaciones en las manifestaciones mortuarias. El análisis de restos esqueletarios proporciona informatión sobre caries, cuidado dental e hipoplasia de esmalte, a la vez que permite comparar la salud de lafamilia Weir, de status relativamente elevado, con otras muestras de la población. El análisis de los artefactos revela cuatro estilos de decoratión de tumbas que no son el resultado de variaciones de status dentro del sitio sino que reflejan el surgimiento, apogeo y decadencia de las expresiones culturales de la era Victoriana relacionadas con el "embellecimiento" de la muerte. Dentro de esta amplia tendencia cultural se pueden efectuar comparaciones acerca de las manifestaciones de status. El surgimiento y declinatión del ideal decimonónico del embellecimiento de la muerte añade un contenido cultural vital para comprender la expresión material de un proceso que constituye un ciclo de exhibitión

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , July 1992 , pp. 397 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992 

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