Residential Burial: A Multiregional Exploration

Description

Editors: Adams, Ron L. and King, Stacie M.

Publisher: American Anthropological Association

Pub Date: 2011

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Fair.  No marks, tears, folds.  Front and rear bottom corners have slight bends (less than 1/4″).  Light edge wear.  Appears unused.

Notes:  Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, Number 20.  Mortuary practices in Indonesia and Thailand, Mexico and Honduras, historic Mesopotamia, among Cherokee cultures in the southern Appalachians.  “Though practices vary in time, place, and context, the presence of burials in residential settings compels archaeologists to carefully consider the relationship between the living and the dead and to explore the importance of social memory, social reproduction, relations of power, mortuary ritual, and social landscapes [burial, ancestors, social reproduction, memory, landscapes]”  (From the Abstract).  I know my ancestors had a family plot on their land in 19th century Missouri, as I imagine most families did, especially when farming was the principal occupation.  Tending to graves was an annual event.  “Modern” communal cemeteries didn’t really exist until 1831, with the construction of the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA.  And if you’ve never visited Arlington National Cemetery, it’s a must-see (before you die?), though it hardly qualifies as “residential”.