An Integrated Analysis of Pre-Hispanic Mortuary Practices: a Middle Sicán Case Study Izumi Shimada Southern Illinois University Carbondale
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Southern Illinois University Carbondale OpenSIUC Publications Department of Anthropology 6-2004 An Integrated Analysis of Pre-Hispanic Mortuary Practices: A Middle Sicán Case Study Izumi Shimada Southern Illinois University Carbondale Ken-ichi Shinoda National Science Museum, Tokyo Julie Farnum Montclair State University Robert Corruccini Southern Illinois University Carbondale Hirokatsu Watanabe Terra Information Engineering Company Follow this and additional works at: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/anthro_pubs © 2004 by The eW nner‐Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Published in Current Anthropology, Vol. 45, No. 3 (June 2004) at 10.1086/382249 Recommended Citation Shimada, Izumi, Shinoda, Ken-ichi, Farnum, Julie, Corruccini, Robert and Watanabe, Hirokatsu. "An Integrated Analysis of Pre- Hispanic Mortuary Practices: A Middle Sicán Case Study." (Jun 2004). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Anthropology at OpenSIUC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Publications by an authorized administrator of OpenSIUC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Current Anthropology Volume 45, Number 3, June 2004 ᭧ 2004 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved 0011-3204/2004/4503-0004$3.00 Human burials, with their tangible and intangible com- ponents, are shaped by the interplay of numerous factors, An Integrated and therefore they provide a wide range of information and insight about cultures, populations, and their envi- ronments, depending on the analytical perspective one Analysis of Pre- adopts. Indeed, recognition of the multivariate and in- formative character of the conception and treatment of Hispanic Mortuary death has led to many anthropological studies. Hertz (1960[1909]) offered a sophisticated theory on the collec- tive representation of death that focused on the triadic Practices interplay among the dead/soul, the corpse/burial, and the living/mourners (Metcalf and Huntington 1991). For much of the twentieth century, however, archaeologists A Middle Sica´n Case Study1 focused on the material aspects of death—burials and, in particular, their associated furnishings. Burial exca- vations were commonly motivated by the search for well-preserved decorated artifacts in presumed sealed, by Izumi Shimada, synchronous context. They served primarily as the basis Ken-ichi Shinoda, Julie Farnum, for stylistic dating and determination of cultural affili- ation. This vision of burials was basically static, com- Robert Corruccini, and partmentalized, and object-centered. Osteological re- mains, rituals and symbolism, and the living remained Hirokatsu Watanabe largely unexplored. In an effort to redress the atheoretical and underde- veloped character of mortuary archaeology, Binford (1971) offered the general proposition that treatment in death was primarily determined by one’s social position Recent debate has raised serious questions about the viability of in life and that sociopolitical complexity and mortuary the social and ideological reconstruction of prehistoric culture on the basis of mortuary analysis. In recent years bioarchaeology has elaboration were positively correlated. Much of his ar- gained considerable prominence, underscoring the fact that death, gument rested on findings from his cross-cultural study burials, and associated mortuary practices are multifaceted phe- of 40 historical and modern societies. Concurrently, Saxe nomena shaped by biological, social, ideological, and taphonomic (1970) proposed a body of testable theory (i.e., eight hy- factors. Few studies attempting social reconstruction through mor- tuary analysis, including those of a bioarchaeological character, potheses) regarding the degrees of concordance between have adequately addressed this multidimensionality. This study mortuary practice and social structure in three ethno- shows that social, ideological, and bioarchaeological reconstruction graphic settings. These two complemented each other can be productively pursued through tight integration of a multi- and have since come to be called the Saxe-Binford hy- tude of approaches and perspectives set within a long-term re- gional study. Focusing on two large 1,000-year-old Middle Sica´n pothesis or the “representationist” position (Brown 1971; shaft tombs on the north coast of Peru, it integrates analyses of 1995a:393; 1995b:10). mitochondrial DNA, inherited dental traits, developmental health, This position provided the theoretical underpinning diet, placement of interred individuals and associated grave goods, for a generation of mortuary studies that directly or in- and data from ground-penetrating radar surveys. Overall it shows directly promoted a positivist vision of social evolution that these tombs reflected the broader social organization and were part of a planned elite cemetery and that the overlying monumen- and presumably the predictable correlation between ma- tal adobe mound served as the physical focus of ancestor worship. grants to Shimada from the Heinz Foundation (1999), the National izumi shimada is Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illi- Geographic Society (1999, 2001), the Shibusawa Ethnological Foun- nois University (Carbondale, IL 62901, U.S.A. [ishimada@siu. dation (1990–94, 1995–97), and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for edu]), specializing in Andean archaeology. ken-ichishinoda Anthropological Research (2001). Many colleagues and students as- is a senior research physical anthropologist at the National Sci- sisted us in the fieldwork that yielded our burial samples. In par- ence Museum in Tokyo. julie farnum is Assistant Professor ticular, we thank Victor Curay, Carlos Elera, Kazuharu Mine, Jorge Montenegro, Melody Shimada, Rafael Vega-Centeno, and Ursel of Anthropology at Montclair State University. robert Wagner. Kazuharu Mine and Bin Yamaguchi offered us valuable corruccini is Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois osteological observations. Corruccini received a summer research University. hirokatsu watanabe is the senior ground-pene- fellowship from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, for his trating-radar specialist at Terra Information Engineering Company, dental-trait analysis. We thank Robert Benfer and William Duncan Yokohama. The present paper was submitted 31 iii 03 and ac- for their assistance in making silicon molds and their dental stone cepted 29 x 03. casts, respectively. Tooth sampling by Shinoda and Shimada in Peru and laboratory analysis by Shinoda at Saga Medical School were [Supplementary material appears in the electronic edition of this supported by a grant-in-aid for scientific research (2000–2004) from issue on the journal’s web page (http://www.journals.uchicago. Japan’s Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture. R. C. edu/CA/home.html).] Sutter kindly allowed us to cite his unpublished papers. Finally, for helpful comments on earlier drafts, we thank Haagen Klaus, Theo- 1. Relevant archaeological field and laboratory work between 1990 dore Schurr, and Melody Shimada. Troy Case assisted with com- and 2002 was conducted with the generous support of research pilation of some references. 369 370 F current anthropology Volume 45, Number 3, June 2004 terial remains and social structure. Determination of the ties and boundaries, symbolism and cosmology (e.g., social correlates of mortuary treatment through mea- Cannon 1989; Dillehay 1995; Pader 1982; Parker Pearson surement of energy expenditure (e.g., Tainter 1978), for 1982, 1993; Shanks and Tilley 1982, Tarlow 1999). example, seemed to offer a clear conception of the per- At the same time, this genre of mortuary analysis, tinent cause-effect relationship and operational ease but though often thoughtful and inspiring, has its own meth- left one wondering how energy expenditure could be odological and theoretical weaknesses and challenges. fully measured, what was really being measured, and McHugh (1999:16) considers the main difficulty to be whether nonmaterial factors had any significance at all that of distinguishing purposeful ideological manipula- (cf. Braun 1981, Cannon 1989). This and other mortuary tions from other cultural behavior or natural processes studies of the same era focused on deceased individuals, that would produce the same kind of material remains. material attributes, and the evolutionary complexity of In this sense, it is understandable that insightful mor- their societies. tuary studies of this genre have often been focused on The underlying premise of a correlation between fu- well-documented social contexts in historical Britain nerary treatment and social complexity was soon chal- (e.g., Cannon 1989, Parker Pearson 1982, Tarlow 1999) lenged (e.g., Hodder 1980, 1982). O’Shea (1984) pointed or built on the application of presumed universal dual- to the muddying effects of factors such as formation pro- istic oppositions such as sacred/profane and female/male cesses and sampling. Even the reliability and compara- (e.g., Hodder 1984, Shanks and Tilley 1982). Other than bility of the ethnographic data that underlay the Saxe- the importance of contextual analysis, these highly var- Binford hypothesis came to be questioned (e.g., McHugh ied case studies do not offer general methodological 1999, Morris 1987). In response to criticism from both guidelines for, for example, investigating the symbolic within and outside the representationist camp, impor- dimension of nonliterate, pre-Hispanic mortuary prac- tant tests and refinements of the hypothesis were