Society for American Archaeology Mortuary Practices: Their Study and Their Potential Author(s): Lewis R. Binford Source: Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 25, Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices (1971), pp. 6-29 Published by: Society for American Archaeology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25146709 Accessed: 06/10/2010 09:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sam. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Society for American Archaeology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology. http://www.jstor.org MORTUARY PRACTICES: THEIR STUDY AND THEIR POTENTIAL Lewis R Binford ABSTRACT are examined The explanations of burial customs at length together by previous provided anthropologists with the assumptions and data orientations are them. Both the assumptions that lay behind and explanations to be inadequate shown from the point and from a detailed of view of systems of the examination theory record. A cross-cultural Area Files shows that associations do survey drawn from the Human Relations empirical measures exist between of mortuary It was found that both the number ritual variety and structural complexity. and specific forms of the dimensions in mortuary of the social persona ritual vary commonly recognized as measured the organizational with of the society forms of subsistence by different significantly complexity the forms that differentiations in mortuary ritual take vary significantly with the dimensions practice. Moreover, of the social persona much of contemporary and interpretation symbolized. Hence, conjecture archaeological of cultural cultural and the presence of specific burial customs is processes differentiation, regarding change, as well as the ideational these notions. and assumptions Inferences about the inadequate propositions underlying are from trait lists obtaining manifestations presumed directly "relationships" among compared archaeological useless without of the organizational of the pertinent cultural systems. properties knowledge of Anthropology Department of New Mexico University 1970 January, HUMAN BURIALS are one of the most frequently encountered classes of cultural feature If this high frequency of encounter were to bring with it greater observed by archaeologists. as then conceptual elaboration, postulated in Whorfs "Eskimo and snow principle" (1956:216), we might expect archaeologists to have developed a complicated paradigm for describing and analyzing human burials. Yet, while there exists a specialized descriptive lexicon (extended, flexed, semi-flexed burials, bundle or flesh burials, cremations or inhumations, etc.) which reveals a concern with the description of observed differences and similarities, there is a surprising lack of literature in which attempts are made to deal with burials as a distinct class of variable phenomena. The majority of both comparative and theoretical efforts have been made by ethnologists working with data from groups. however, living Rarely, at a given between location, on mortuary the literature as observed data In approaching sought: 1. Documentation 2. An offered of the problem approached inventory of both to explain various explaining three practices, classes general from which perspective facets of mortuary the specific arguments in mortuary variations been attempts or as documented locations, the philosophical of to explain variable burial in the general literature. there have of were information previous workers have custom. and empirical generalizations which have been practice. 3. From the above, I have sought to document arguments which have been advanced regarding variations in the form of spatial configurations of burials, as well as observable trends, or temporal sequences of formal in mortuary changes, practice. OF PAST INVESTIGATORS PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES The of mortuary relevance anthropological within the context interests of in practices this area. considerations of to the general study of religion served to focus early of mortuary Discussion customs was normally presented religion." "primitive Tylor (1871) developed the argument that animism, or the belief in spiritual beings, arose in the context of dream and death experience. A body-soul dichotomy was perceived in dream, and projected into the death situation inwhich survival of the ghost-soul after destruction of the body was postulated. Frazer (1886) elaborated on these ideas and argued that all mortuary ritual was motivated by fear of the deceased's ghost-soul, and was an attempt on the part of the living to control the actions of the ghosts of the dead. For instance, he states that: heavy stones origin of funeral were piled on his grave cairns and tombstones to keep him down, [1886:65]. 6 on the principle of "sit tibi terra gravis." This is the MORTUARY PRACTICES 7 Binford] it into the grave by means of of leaving food on the tomb or of actually passing The nearly universal practice an aperture or tube is too well known to need illustration. Like the habit of dressing the dead in his best desire to induce the perturbed in the selfish but not unkindly it probably spirit to rest in clothes, originated the living for food and raiment the grave and not come plaguing [1886:74-75]. In the tradition we of Tylor-Frazer, can the document rationalist-idealist's argument ideas that or beliefs were the relevant variables to be used in understanding cultural or behavioral differences and similarities. In the same year as Frazer's works quoted above, the first comparative study of mortuary practices was published in the United States (Yarrow 1880, 1881). Justification for the study was given in the following way: "The mortuary customs of savage or barbaric people have a deep significance from the fact that in them are revealed much of the philosophy of the people by whom they are practiced" (Yarrow 1880:3). An early comparative study of mortuary practices as known archaeologically was conducted by the Frenchman, Viollier. "We study burial to gain on religion and beliefs" the same tradition of information Later, 1911:123). (Viollier is exemplified by John M. Tyler, "The changes in the mode of investigation anthropological disposal of the dead are evidently the results of changed views concerning the future life" (Tyler 1921:123). Those who approached their subject matter from the perspective of the rationalist-idealist generated propositions which correlated certain practices with certain postulated or are cited as these proposed or observed correlations forms of belief. Sometimes normally observed or "natural" "rational" intellectual to certain responses of classes experience. In defense of this approach, it should be pointed out that men like Tylor and Frazer were interested primarily in cultural similarities. They sought to uncover the common basis for diverse practices and to document similarities between the practices of a wide variety of peoples. Seldom was analytical attention given to cultural differences except insofar as they were thought to reflect societies at different levels in a postulated sequence of progressive development. The argument against an idealist position is, of course, to point out that, by a referral of observed differences within one class of phenomena (behavior) to postulated differences within in ideas and in the for differences another (ideas), we are forced to seek the explanations conditions favoring their change. Robertson Smith was one of the early challengers to the idealists' philosophy as exemplified by Tylor and Frazer; "Our modern habit is to look at religion from the side of belief rather than of practice ... so far as myths consist of explanations of ritual, their value is altogether ... secondary the conclusion is that the in study begin, not with myth, but with ritual and traditional usage" (Smith was elaborated and developed by members of the L 'Annee Sociologique stressed vary that in Durkheimian tions" were rites form and thinkers of burial rites related structure to to other with treat as natural the mortuary human institutions social ritual responses ofthe variables. social Hertz effectively. of horror He to of ancient religions we must 1894:16-18). This criticism school of Durkheim. They and could system one was of the be expected of earliest to the that argued "explana simplistic a decaying are untenable, corpse since this "natural horror" ismitigated by the social importance of the deceased. "Within the same society the emotion provoked by death varies wildly in intensity according to the social character of the deceased" (Hertz 1960:82). Hertz goes on to point out that children and aged persons as well as persons suffering violent deaths, death by accident, suicides, death in (1960:92) treatment (1960:95). This is in childbirth, etc., are frequently afforded differential mortuary to addition to the differentiations mentioned relate the which social previously position of the deceased. Hertz develops the argument that death occasions an initiation rite into the afterworld and is treated by members of society as are other status changes, such as initiation at (1960:86), ritual will vary directly with (a) puberty, birth rites, etc. He argues that differences in mortuary the status of the person within the living community and (b) the perceived relationship of that status to the status of full participant in the "society of souls." Persons who are full participants in the corporal society at the time of their death must be afforded rites which sever their relationship with that society. A common practice is a second rite which marks the incorporation of the deceased into the "invisible society." For those who are not full societal participants at the time of death, minimal rites of incorporation into the "invisible society" are given. Such is the case with very old men, who have essentially ceased participation, or children, who have not yet become members ofthe "visible society." [Memoir 25 8 APPROACHES TOMORTUARY PRACTICES Four years after the publication Rites de Passage (1932) in which status of changes or of Hertz's work, Van Gennep published his famous workZes there is an expansion of the thesis that rites serve to mark There condition. no is, however, specific of development about arguments mortuary practices beyond those of Hertz. treats them in the generic sense as had in writing about mortuary rites (1954:403), Durkheim, Van Gennep; there is no development or argument which would offer explanations for differences in such observed rites. the works Following The Andaman monograph, rites, mortuary The burial on attack was the publication of Radcliffe-Brown's the problem of the basis for the practice of of the French school Islanders. He discusses that: stating customs of the collective are the Andamanese of solidarity feeling to be explained, constituted by as a collective of a member I believe, the death reaction the against of the social group [1922:286]. he has an as being the sum of characteristics of an individual the "social by which personality" Defining on the social sentiments the of others, we may effect the social life and therefore say that by death upon a profound so that from being an object of is not annihilated but undergoes social personality change, an object of painful states [1922:285]. it becomes states of the social sentiments pleasurable afterwards, Malinowski Shortly the of presence (1925) from stemming anxiety thesis that magic presented his well-known ofthe control inadequate forces in is practiced of nature. in motion of a member. much more than the removal Death in a primitive By setting society is, therefore, and solidarity of it threatens the very cohesion one part of the deep forces of the instinct of self-preservation, . . . counteracts . . . ceremonial of death of that society the organization this depends the group, and upon means for the most and provided of fear, forces the centrifugal demoralization, powerful dismay, of the group's shaken solidarity reintegration [1925:53]. In 1939 Radcliffe-Brown setting forth the argued strongly against the ideas of Malinowski, it were not for the existence of the rite and the beliefs associated that "if opposite proposition effect of the rite is to with it the individuals would feel no anxiety, and that the psychological create in him a sense of insecurity or danger" (Radcliffe-Brown 1952:142). was not particularly interested in In this same article, it is quite clear that Radcliffe-Brown Like rationalist-idealist his for observed differences. predecessors, he was offering explanations in abstracting interested primarily as the basis for generalizations "explanations" analogous the about The basic society is what question [Radcliffe-Brown society, science observed and were in turn served cited as 1941): [Radcliffe-Brown of ritual and then These situations. phenomena, and show an immense is to discover of society differences is the relation of class for the observed behavior (Homans exist in every known Ritual values of a natural The problem another. the superficial uniformities beneath from features subject ritual to as we pass from one society diversity the deeper, not immediately perceptible, 1952:142]. values to the essential constitution of human 1952:142]. with his predecessors, he seems to have shared a basic methodology Although Radcliffe-Brown differed in what he considered appropriate features for generalizing. He did not cite generalizations regarding beliefs (as explanation) but rather those regarding sentiments, "The beliefs by which the are the rationalizations of rites themselves are justified and given some sort of consistency with them" sentiments associated actions and ofthe 1952:152). (Radcliffe-Brown symbolic These works provide the general intellectual context in terms of which anthropologists have approached the study of mortuary custom. Common to these writers has been the development of arguments regarding the motivational or responsive context in which individuals might be expected to differentially behave, though this differential behavior is always commensurate with the range of behavioral variability known ethnographically. Little attention was actually given to the study of distributions of variability as documented either within or among socio-cultural units. Concern in these works had been with mortuary custom in the abstract or focused on particular categories of mortuary practices; double burial 1886), or the burial practices of a particular society 1960), burial cairns (Frazer (Hertz has been some progressive discussion of the most fruitful there While 1922). (Radcliffe-Brown in belief in mortuary practice, differences in which to perceive customary differences context systems, differences in forms of social organization, or differences in systems of social value, MORTUARY PRACTICES 9 Binford] theory has failed to develop to a point where offered for observed differences or similarities. a context it yields in which explanations can be Anthropologists, particularly archaeologists, working to achieve the reconstruction of culture have history approached the study of mortuary custom much differently. It is to these types of study that I now turn my attention. APPROACHES HISTORICAL-DISTRIBUTIONAL The culture historian may begin by plotting the distribution of a given form and then attempts in terms of to "explain" it in historical terms, or he may present a historical "reconstruction" a distributional some of is the advanced. which followed, strategy Regardless prediction assumptions or propositions must be put forward regarding the variables which would operate to in mortuary custom and to condition different generate formal variability spatial-temporal configurations. Further, some assumptions must be made regarding the historical significance of observed differences or similarities, and the degree that formal analogies would be accepted as stemming from identical or related historical-event sequences. While not particularly concerned with the of the interpretive principles employed for "reading history" from distributions, I am specifics that have been employed and the assumptions which have been vitally interested in the methods made about the determinant context in which variability might be expected to arise. The purpose of this discussion is to determine whether or not there is sufficient empirical material extant in the literature to evaluate the accuracy of the assumptions made by culture in arriving historians at historical reconstructions on mortuary based data. The assumptions commonly governing historical reconstruction can be outlined as follows: 1. Culture is a body of custom which arises in the context ofthe conceptual-intellectual life of varies directly as a function of the patterns of transmission and peoples; it distributionally communication among peoples, and with the differential capacities or opportunities for intellectual experience. This is, of course, my generalization of the idealist's assumption of which has dominated anthropology and is still the most accepted conceptualization culture (see Kroeber and Kluckhohn 1952:180-190). 2. The customs of a single socio-cultural tradition were originally uniform and formally distinct. This assumption normally remains implicit in most studies but is easily inferred from one of its corollaries given below. There is an interesting analogy between this assumption and that of the now-discredited assumption of "pure races" which misguided racial studies for many years. The or modal normative assumption is still current in archaeology (see Aberle 1960, and Binford 1965, for criticism). Multiple practices observed in the past. (Perry among socio-cultural units result from cultural mixing or hybridization 1914; Rivers 1913;Thomas 1944; Davidson 1948; James 1928; Stanislawski 1908;Toulouse 1963; Myers 1942). 3. For practical purposes, the degree of formal similarity observed among independent socio-cultural units is a direct measure of the degree of genetic or affiliational cultural relationship among the units being compared. It has frequently been argued that this is particularly true with regard to mortuary practices which have been frequently endowed, by observers, with unusual stability (see Rivers 1913; Perry 1914; Stanislawski 1963). It is recognized that the various schools of historical interpretation differed over many of the qualifications placed on these assumptions. Similarly, they have varied with regard either to the weighting given various culture traits, or to the specifics of historical significance attributed to these traits. Nevertheless, these assumptions have been basic to historical reconstruction. in the context of the studies were conducted distributional Many regional and continental various schools of "historical" anthropology. Both Graebner (1905) and Schmidt (1913) studied mortuary practices as means to historical reconstruction, as did their students (Kiisters 1919-20). Similarly, the leaders (Perry 1914) as well as the followers of the "Pan-Egyptian" arguments showed particular interest in mortuary practices, especially mummification (Dawson 1928) and reconstructions celestial references in mortuary rites (Rose 1922). Historical based on the of rites been American and have also less extreme mortuary comparative study attempted by [Memoir 25 10 APPROACHES TOMORTUARY PRACTICES diffusionists 1944; Davidson 1948; (James 1928; Thomas 1908; Toulouse 1963). In 1927, A. L. Kroeber published a short paper titled "Disposal of the Dead" studied were as useful the degree that burial practices distributionally questioned as other He that the distributions of mortuary of features culture. observed inquiries British to conform the of boundaries or areas culture as defined sub-areas by other traits. Stanislawski in which he for historical traits did not He reasoned that "If the distributions were to be interpreted as is customary, it was evident that methods of corpse disposal have had a history that was less simple and regular, and more fluctuating, than to most elements of native Californian Culture" (Kroeber 1927:308). Kroeber then proceeded than in those which are customs" argue that there may be less stability in "affect-laden low-toned." By the citation of empirical studies documenting great variability in the "emotionally distributions of mortuary traits, he further argues that: These within between variations adjacent peoples, one population, a powerful constitute and of coexistence the numerous instances for instability [Kroeber 1927:313]. of several practices argument this follows is likely to be a poor the generalization that intensity of feeling any institution regarding as if any, of its permanence. to social behavior Emotion attaches much evidently secondarily are no index of the reality and plausability of a rationalization of its completeness thought does. The a cultural practice are no index of the immediacy and intensity of emotion motivation; purported concerning the origin or durability of that practice. 1927:313]. [Kroeber From criterion, Up until this point, Kroeber seems to be directing his argument generally against W. H. R. Rivers, who had argued that, because of the affect associated with death rites, mortuary customs would be adhered to with special tenacity. Once Kroeber presents his argument against this he position, states: or historic More fruitful, perhaps, is a consideration of the type of motivation that influences modes causality of disposal to characterize is pretty of the dead. Here it appears that a feature which likely mortuary is their dissociation from certain those having to do with practices especially large blocks of cultural activity, material of the dead has little and economic and mechanical That life, its subsistence is, disposal aspects. or primary connection with that part of behavior which social necessities, with those related to the biological are a frequent or constant activities which tend to become of living and therefore and portion interadapted one on the other. On the other hand, disposal of the dead also does not lend itself to any great dependent are susceptible of formalization and codification, with domains of behavior which like degree of integration both from the basic of religion, and social organization. types of law, much therefore, apart, Standing of which mostly themselves and from those which activities unconsciously, largely involve relations regulate of the dead falls rather into a become conscious and systematized, and therefore persons socially disposal or folkways on the one hand, or institutions on the other. class with than with either customs It fashions, of the bases of life nor into attempts at enter intrinsically does not readily into the inevitable integrations wider systems Kroeber's environment 1927:314]. [Kroeber the considers argument for intellectual innovation to which "emotion" degree of transmission and a role in conditioning plays In his argument, information. the he is that the differential essentially in agreement with Radcliffe-Brown's proposition (1952:148-149) intensity of emotional responses to different life experiences would not condition the form and direction of cultural innovation directly. This position, as we have pointed out, was opposed by Malinowski (1925). Kroeber's argument, however, shifts the emphasis to a consideration of mortuary practices per se and offers the proposition that the apparent "instability" and the documented wide range of formal variability in mortuary practice is evidence of the essential emotional independence of mortuary compatible configurations customs with from "core" cultural the apparent demonstrated for features. This failure of mortuary the "core" cultural is a proposition which, traits to associate features of California, if accurate, with aboriginal would be the distributional societies. that all cultural features, including mortuary the implicit assumption challenges in historical practices, are of equal utility for use under the normal assumptions employed reconstruction. This challenge was one of the first serious considerations given to the possibility to the same sets of historical variables. that all cultural features did not respond mechanistically The following materials have been organized to test, with observational data amassed by other set forth by Kroeber. In addition, I hope to use these investigators, the specific propositions as a basis for judging the validity of the basic assumptions which have guided observations historical investigations in anthropology. Kroeber Binford] MORTUARY PRACTICES 11 The mortuary social two propositions to be tested are: (1) mortuary customs exhibit "unstable" histories, (2) customs vary independently of behavior "which relates to the biological or primary necessities." two summaries will be presented; the first will relate In order to test these two propositions, to second will synthesize observations that have been initial The Kroeber's proposition. directly on made sets the of variables for applicable in mortuary variation understanding custom. The information synthesized in the latter survey will then be used to test the validity of Kroeber's of the assumptions second proposition and to evaluate the validity used in historical reconstructions. Erminie Wheeler Voegelin conducted an analysis of the ethnohistorical regarding Shawnee burial practices spanning a 114 yr period. She concluded Comparison informants 1824-1938 funerary information that: available to mortuary customs the historical material and field accounts of present-day relating the remarkable of the Shawnee burial the period from stability complex. During in its larger features, such as treatment remained almost unchanged of the corpse, complex of graves [Voegelin and construction 1944:666]. procedure, of has the shown Kroeber pointed out in his original argument: "There are certainly instances of mortuary habits in dynastic Egypt, for instance; that have continued for long times with only minor modification: in all but the fringe of Pueblo culture" (Kroeber in most of Europe during most of the Neolithic, 1927:314). for argument against Kroeber's These empirical cases to the contrary provide material customs have some intrinsic or "essential" qualities which would that mortuary generalization there seems to be a wide range of tend to insure their exhibiting unstable histories. Rather, in Some the of relative historical sequences exhibit a rather mortuary practices. variability stability remarkable stability while others change radically and rapidly. Some areas are characterized by vast heterogeneity in practices both regionally and with regard to single socio-cultural systems. a constant are sought by postulating for differences and similarities, which Explanations never an to context for the execution of will lead mortuary customs, psychological explanation of observed variability. The empirical generalization that mortuary customs tend to be inherently less stable and more is refuted variable by numerous cases empirical to the contrary. The to attempt link the postulated context of "affect-laden customs," where certain behavioral instability to the psychological are proposed, collapses with the demonstrated inaccuracy of the initial empirical expectations generalization. now We consider independently of be accomplished customs and been have second "which relates organizational the regarding the customs that mortuary vary degree proposition: or primary to the biological can social necessities." This that there by demonstrating social made Kroeber's behavior and correlates is an absence of correlation variables. technological of mortuary variability What within then of and between mortuary the observations among that socio-cultural units? ARGUMENTSOFFEREDTO ACCOUNTFORVARIABILITYINMORTUARYRITES PRACTICED In the works for differences of previous in mortuary BY DISTINCT three investigators, as conducted practices SOCIO-CULTURAL basic arguments among participants are UNITS offered generally of a single society. to account 1. The limiting effects of the environment, obtaining at the time of death, on the free exercise of all forms of body disposal. 2. Mutual effects of intersocietal contact in producing amalgamations or replacements of ritual forms. 3. The characteristics recognized as relevant to the relationships either severed or established at death between the deceased and the remaining members of a society. The first argument is one which recognizes a relationship between the form of mortuary rites, particularly the disposition of the body, and the limiting features of the local environment. For instance, Schoolcraft (1855) proposed that the practices of inhumation and scaffold burial as noted for the Winnebago were options to be exercised alternatively, depending on whether the 12 APPROACHES TOMORTUARY PRACTICES death when occurred inhumation during was the winter, when a realistic alternative. the ground was frozen, or [Memoir 25 the warmer during months on empirical grounds (Radin has been questioned this particular hypothesis Although of forms different the that relate to the corpse disposal may proposition 1923:140), environmental conditions obtaining at the time of death is a reasonable proposition and one which has prompted very little investigation. Under the second argument fall the diffusionistic interpretations so common in the literature James Thomas 1928:229; Griffin 1908:388; 1930:43; Toulouse Perry 1914:289-290; (see 1944:70; Stanislawski 1963:308, 315). Perry (1914), in considering the results of culture contacts, argues that the demonstrable variety in burial practices among Australian groups is evidence for sustained contact between diverse cultural systems. In a subsequent article he argues that the presence of different forms of grave orientation as practiced by members of a single society is for the blending of two cultures previously distinct (Perry taken as evidence reasonably in regional studies, the citation of mixed practices is offered as 1914:289-290). Frequently, evidence for contacts between cultures. It is implied that blending is the expected outcome of contacts between socio-cultural systems, each with its own "norm" of mortuary ritual. such as those cited above, are generally given in the context of Diffusionistic interpretations, idealistic arguments where "beliefs" are assumed to be the primary controlling variables in the nature of mortuary rites. Contacts are said to foster the exchange of "ideas" determining of custom, of which changes inmortuary ritual might be one which may result in the modification example. The following is a list of the most commonly cited propositions as to the relationship between forms of mortuary custom and beliefs. 1. Propositions offered in "explanation" for formal variations in the manner of treating the dead prior to interment a. Propositions regarding the practice of cremation. (1) Cremation is associated with belief in an afterworld in the sky; burning the physical remains releases the soul which is then transported to the celestial afterworld via the ascending smoke (James 1928:232-233). (2) Cremation is associated with extreme fear of the corpse and hence a desire to "be done with it" (Malinowski 1925:49). b. Propositions regarding the practice of mummification. aim of mummification both in Egypt and elsewhere was twofold; first, to (l)"The preserve the body from decay, and secondly to secure the personal survival of the individual" (Dawson 1928:136; Malinowski 1925:49). 2. Propositions offered in "explanation" for formal variations in the manner of arranging the body in the grave. a. Propositions regarding the practice of flexing the body. (1) Flexing the body was a copy of the position of the foetus in utero which was taken as a symbol of rebirth (Tyler 1921:124; Wilder and Whipple 1917:376; Grottanelli 1947:83; Kiisters 1919-20:684). (2) Flexing of the body was the result of binding the legs to the body to prevent the spirit from walking and thus returning to the living (see Tyler 1921:124; Wilder and 1947:83). Whipple 1917:376; Grottanelli b. Propositions regarding the orientation of the dead in the grave relative to specific reference points. (1) Orientation of the body in death with respect to cardinal directions "seems to be the new life at working out of the solar analogy, on the one hand is death at sunset... sunrise" (Tylor 1871:508). of the body in death with respect to cardinal directions (celestial (2) Orientation is related to a belief in a continued life of the dead man at a celestial orientation) land of the dead, orientation being in the direction the deceased must travel in their journey to the land of the dead (Rose 1922:132-133). (3) Orientation of the body with respect to terrestrial reference points is related to a belief in reincarnation since the body is aligned toward the location where the soul Binford] MORTUARY PRACTICES 13 must reside before being reborn (Rose 1922:129-132). (4) The direction of orientation of the body at death is toward the original home ofthe forefathers (Spencer 1893, Vol. 1:201; Perry 1914:285, Steele 1931:81; Grottanelli 1947:83). 3. Propositions offered in "explanation" for formal variations in the choice of locations for the grave. dead are buried near, or in, their old homes, because they are wanted back (l)"The again, in the form of babies born of women of their own clan, tribe or family" (Rose 1922:129). (2) Tyler, citing the burial of children under house floors, writes: "It is not impossible that we have here one of the ways in which the fear of the dead may have been gradually dispelled. May we not imagine that one of the first steps was the refusal of to allow her dead child to be banished from the house?" (Tyler the mother 1921:125-126). (3) In contrast, is the following suggestion as to the origin of hearth burial: "People did not know yet what death was and therefore tried to warm up the body" (Kiisters 1919-20:956). (4)1 will cite one final argument analogous to the one given for orientation; namely, that people selected burial sites with reference to the characteristics of their prior habitat. "Tree burial can be explained by the fact that people originally lived in trees" (Kiisters 1919-20:211). or Change variability in mortuary practice, as demonstrated, is commonly attributed to change or variability in beliefs. Although we are rarely enlightened as to the causes of change in belief, it would appear from this survey that change in belief is generally assumed to proceed from the cumulative experience of man in coping with his environment. There is also the implication that an increase in knowledge and associated changes in the conceptualizations of experience are vital forces driving culture change. This assumption is normally coupled with the argument of cultural conservatism which says that new knowledge is rarely obtained, and, therefore, the appearance of similar cultural elements inmultiple societies occurs as a by-product ofthe transmission of acquired from knowledge one unit to another. The final set of considerations, which have been cited as relevant to understanding observed variability in the practices of a single society, are characteristics of the deceased which might be I have found only three studies which acknowledged by differentiated mortuary ceremonialism. attempted to gather specific data on this subject (Kiisters 1919-20; Bendann 1930; Wedgwood 1927). problem the However, many from data which other authors have offered they surveyed. The following empirical generalizations quotations are offered relevant to this as a sample from literature. 1. James Yarrow commenting on the study of American Indians, 1880: "A complete account of these (burial) customs in any tribe will necessitate the witnessing of many funeral rites, as the customs will differ at the death of different persons, depending upon age, sex, and social standing" (Yarrow 1880:5). 2. W. Crooke with reference to burial practices in India, 1899: "those tribes which habitually cremate the adult dead bury those who perish by violent or unexpected deaths" (Crooke 1899:279). 3. Robert Hertz in a general consideration of mortuary practices, 1907: "Within the same society the emotion provoked by death varies widely in intensity according to the social character ofthe deceased" (Hertz 1960:82). 4. Van Gennep in a general consideration of rites of passage, 1908: "Everyone knows that funeral rites vary widely among different peoples and that further variations depend on the sex, age, and social position ofthe deceased" (Van Gennep 1960:146). 5. W. D. Wallis in a general consideration of similarities in culture, 1917: "the social personality of the deceased does not die with the body but passes beyond the death portal. To the body is shown about the same degree of respect that was shown the deceased while alive. The bodies of women are seldom disposed of like those of men, nor those of children like those of adults. The bodies of chiefs and braves are interred in different manner from those of [Memoir 25 14 APPROACHES TOMORTUARY PRACTICES common people" (Wallis 1917:46). in his consideration of An dame se culture, 1922: "burial customs are 6. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown . . customs vary according to the social not solely due to an instinctive fear of dead bodies,. of position the . .There deceased.. is, a close then, the manner between correspondence of burial and the social value ofthe person buried" (Radcliffe-Brown 1922:148). 7. Camilla H. Wedgwood in a comparative study of Melanesian mortuary practices, 1927: "we find that in Melanesia the distinctions made by people in life are reflected in those made at death. Of these the simplest are those made between children and adults, and between men and women. But more marked are those which differentiated people who, by virtue of their their wealth, or valour, or their magical secular are position, to important the community from those who lack any claim to public esteem; while those who have alienated themselves from the society or endangered it by bringing upon themselves an abnormal death are frequently cut off from the general communion ofthe dead" (Wedgwood 1927:395). in a general comparative 8. Effie Bendann study of mortuary practices from Melanesia, Australia, India, and Northeast Siberia, 1930: "The investigation shows that the content of the is dependent features specific rank, upon sex, age, social status" organization, (Bendann 1930:280). 9. James B. Griffin in a general comparative study of mortuary practices of American Indians like to know how these various from northeastern North America, 1930: "We might methods were explained by the Indians . . . those which do give reasons for different ... practices we see that some among as such tribes, the Potawatomie the Ottawa, and that the division was along clan lines. Of course, within the clan special burials were accorded to those who had been drowned or who had died in battle, but in general the burial an ... In other writings we find that the individual received depended on his clan membership various ways burial might take place was occasioned wholly by the manner of death, or the time of year during which the individual died, or the question of absence from the tribal seat would bring a change about in customary . . .Another procedure reason for different burial is to be found in some cases to correspond to the relative position, social standing and occupation of the deceased, and in some cases the age of the deceased played an important part" (Griffin 1930:44-45). other Among investigators similar offering we generalizations cite may 1944:376, Voegelin Miles 1965, and Davidson 1948:75, each recognized a direct relationship between the differential treatment at death and variations in the social identity of the deceased. of the social The following were offered by many investigators as the basic components symbolized through differential burial treatment: (1) age, (2) sex, (3) relative social personality, status within a given social unit, and (4) social affiliation in terms of multiple membership units in the society itself. In addition, it was frequently noted within the society and/or membership that peculiar circumstances surrounding the death of an individual may be perceived by the remaining of members to acknowledge of "members" a society the social a in a substantial as altering, of personality social post-mortem unit and the manner, the deceased. afforded obligations Such persons mortuary ritual of the are instead appropriate survivors treated to such as a membership group. Another contingency, which has been noted as relevant to problems of differential treatment afforded members of a single society, was the disposition of deaths spatially and temporally. I need only mention deaths which occurred far from settlements where special treatment, such as cremation, their "unusual" These that etc., dismemberment, a result of epidemics findings mortuary facilitate may or massacres might easy transport. Deaths be treated corporately, occurring with mass simultaneously as graves, by virtue of coincidence. and arguments were practices provide largely for information independent of second Kroeber's evaluating proposition a cultural of other "core" components link formal which have been advanced consistently system. The empirical generalizations in mortuary rites to status differences and to differences in the group affiliation of differentiation the deceased. This linkage demonstrates a set of mutual dependencies between forms of mortuary rites and social organizational features. We would then expect that, other things being equal, the inmortuary practice which is characteristic of a single socio-cultural unit would vary heterogeneity Binford] MORTUARY PRACTICES 15 directly with the complexity of the status hierarchy, as well as with the complexity ofthe overall organization of the society with regard to membership units and other forms of sodalities. This of is diametrically opposed to Kroeber's proposition regarding the disassociation expectation mortuary from practices features. cultural "core" SUMMARYOF FINDINGSREGARDINGTHEARGUMENTSOF KROEBER was It was asserted that three basic assumptions have traditionally guided historical researches. First the idealist's assumption that cultural variations resulted from either differential intellectual or differential creativity lineal transmission and/or of communication intergroup ideas. this, the idealists reasoned that the determinants responsible for temporal or spatial variability of one cultural element would be the same as those responsible for variation in all From cultural element each elements; was, was Kroeber the first basis for questioning He interpretation. researcher this a cultural reasoning, with to rites mortuary of some of the fundamental that many product to responding control creativity and the transmission of ideas. working the applicability observed to according identical sets of variables; variables which California groups practiced cite as a materials empirical assumptions used in historical of mortuary multiple'forms rites; given the assumptions of historical research, this should have been viewed as evidence for cultural in the past. Kroeber's observations on other distributions of cultural elements did not mixing than question the general validity of the normative support such an interpretation. Rather Kroeber assumption, the questioned categorical of appropriateness as customs mortuary a "proper" cultural element, and the degree that the interpretive assumptions used in historical reconstruction could be applied to mortuary data! Kroeber proposed that there was a continuum along which culture traits might be arranged according to the degree that they were "integrated" with other culture traits. At one end of the were continuum result, "core" to exhibit historical traits were which strongly strong complementary under interpretation traditional and interdependent distributions. Such could distributions be as a expected, were to appropriate assumptions. At the other end of the continuum were traits-which did not "readily enter intrinsically into the inevitable integrations of the bases of life" (Kroeber 1927:314). Such traits were said to be characterized by (1) detachment from the remainder of culture, (2) a high degree of entry into and consciousness, tendency (3) of dress, luxury, fashions?particularly With analysis this argument, Kroeber of mortuary directly a pattern the to "core" linked of same instability subsistence determined demonstrated lack of "instability," intrinsic as of historical the validity integrative distributional those normally first any such proposition, practices should all culture practices elements more a greater exhibit With of traits should practices subsistence available were evidence or "basic" stability in the ethnographic instability cases and free variation, of was refuted are known, "stability" as well and literature by the as cases that such configurations must vary in response to determinants not themselves. that forms of burial are not integrated with more basic cultural activities and features organizational of the society, is clearly by the numerous observations that forms of burial vary directly with the following of the deceased: (1) age, (2) sex, (3) relative social status within the social unit, affiliation in membership units within a society or in the society itself. These certainly are fundamental to the internal differentiation serving as the basis for features based on the reconstructions that and practices type. I obtained to test the propositions data studies, as assumptions in historical serving interpretations. to mortuary that properties intrinsic practices Numerous tendency. second proposition, such and and demonstrating to mortuary Kroeber's features of toning. Mortuary to be of this asserted the assumption indirectly questioned sets of determinant variables. Mortuary while other and free variation, cultural in their general historical result emotional large body of descriptive material numerous comparative as well as set forth by Kroeber The result was that Kroeber's should etiquette?were variability. the relatively From and the by essentially of historical governed a pattern strong and questioned and customs, to refuted characteristics and (4) social characteristics organizational a society. the refutation of Kroeber's propositions, we are faced with his original problem?the 16 APPROACHES TOMORTUARY PRACTICES [Memoir 25 rites. It is applicability of the assumptions of traditional historical interpretation of mortuary are generally that these assumptions the historical invalid; consequently, argued here interpretations which anthropologists have offered in "explanation" of observed differences and similarities in custom are generally suspect and in all probability inaccurate. I will attempt to demonstrate this argument with the development of a frame of reference for comparative study of mortuary rites and provide a test of its usefulness on a body of ethnographic data. STUDYOF MORTUARYRITES:THEIRPOTENTIAL In mortuary ritual, we observe a class of phenomena consisting of both technical and ritual acts 1952:143 for this distinction). Technically, burial customs provide for the (see Radcliffe-Brown disposal of the potentially unpleasant body ofthe deceased. Ritually, mortuary rites consist of the execution of a number of symbolic acts that may vary in two ways: in the form of the symbols employed, and in the number and kinds of referents given symbolic recognition. It will be recalled that the act of symboling is the arbitrary assigning of meaning to form. Therefore, we expect nothing intrinsic in the form of a symbol to limit it to any particular referent. In turn, there is nothing intrinsic in a referent which necessarily determines the form of the symbol to be used in its designation or conceptualization. The forms of symbols may vary independently of their referents and vice versa. In fact, with respect to burial practices, this has been frequently observed. For instance, Kroeber states: river burial is sometimes reserved for chiefs, sometimes for the drowned, sometimes is the normal practice of a group. Tree and platform burial is in certain populations to musicians, restricted and respectively magicians, the bewitched, the lightning and Kings. Cremation is generally reserved for criminals, but struck, criminals, as the usual practice. also occurs in usage, to tribe, for the corpses is variously of Exposure according or the entire population the common criminals, slaves, children, people, 1927:313]. [Kroeber Thus, when considering the degree that symbolic forms are held in common among a number of a matter it becomes socio-cultural of investigating the degree that units, independent communication systems are isomorphically distributed among socio-cultural systems, and/or the degree that there is an identity between the symbol systems and the referent units symbolized. For instance, groups may share the same set of mortuary symbols but employ them antagonistically; e.g., one group cremates its chiefs and the other cremates its criminals. [This pattern is not unknown in Africa (Kiisters 1919-20). The antagonistic use of symbols probably obtained in the Great Lakes of North America; compare grave goods at the sites reported by Binford (1963) and Ritchie (1949).] That the form of symbols may vary independently of their referents, and that forms may be shared but in a situation of contextual contrasts, are features of cultural variability which obviate the normal diffusionists' interpretive frame of reference. The diffusionists would view forms shared among a number of social units as evidence for the "diffusion" of that particular trait among the societies and hence a document of mutual "influences." Similarly, the presence of symbols unique to each socio-cultural unit, would be viewed as evidence for a lack of mutual cultural influences among the groups compared. One can readily envision a situation in which independent societies within a region employ a number of symbols of group identity. Some groups might employ symbolic forms which were unique to the group, while others might employ identical forms in antagonistic ways. Given the regional context, each would serve equally well to distinguish among the groups and provide the pervasive symbolic environment which tends tomaintain the distinctiveness of the groups. the diffusionists would separate those groups employing unique symbols from Nevertheless, those who shared similar forms and assert that there was more mutual cultural influence among those sharing identical forms of symbol. The diffusionists' argument would be rooted in the idealists' assumption and sharing of ideas are responsible for the formal that knowledge similarities. One can readily see that prerequisite to the functioning of the symbols is a common knowledge on the part of all groups. Members of each group would have to know each form and itsmeaning for the symbols to function as group identifiers. Yet this common knowledge would apply equally to those groups employing distinct symbols and to those employing formally identical symbols. Binford] MORTUARY PRACTICES 17 What differential knowledge or shared "ideas" is indicated by the presence of similar symbolic forms among some of the groups? None. Diffusionists' arguments applied to material remains, whether they be related to mortuary practice or not, are universally suspect insofar as symbols are concerned. We now turn to the problem of structural variability. When we elect to study comparatively some identified formal category of cultural elements, we must seek to determine the degree to which there is isomorphism between members of the formal class studied and the particular roles played by each in the socio-cultural systems compared. In the absence of such knowledge, we can expect that different determinants might condition the occurrence and distribution of forms depending upon the difference in functions performed by the element This is, of in diverse systems. one of the course, basic of assumptions sciences; namely, that the laws governing the occurrence of an element in any system will differ when integrated into and distribution organizationally distinct systems. This is a point which, with regard to mortuary practices, must be explored in some detail. When a cultural system is altered in its internal organization, new units of organizational relevance are generated for the human participants. The recognition of such referential units by participants in the system may prompt the act of symboling and thereby result in a proliferation of symbols within the socio-cultural system. Although all units of organizational relevance may not be recognized or considered sufficiently important to social interaction to be given symbolic of role-differentiated recognition, we would expect that, with respect to folk classifications statuses, there would be a high degree of isomorphism between the functionally differentiated status units and the symbolized social positions. We would therefore expect to discover a near identity between the number of social positions within a social organization and the number of symbols designating such units (see Service 1962). rites are the number and kinds of referents given of mortuary Crucial for the considerations are two general components ofthe social situation is there It that recognition. symbolic proposed to be evaluated when attempting to understand the types of social phenomena symbolized in any given burial situation. First is what we may call, with Goodenough (1965:7) the social persona of in life and recognized as the deceased. This is a composite of the social identities maintained and size of the social unit at death. Second is the composition appropriate for consideration to the deceased. We would expect direct correlations between recognizing status responsibilities the relative rank of the social position held by the deceased and the number of persons having duty-status relationships vis-a-vis the deceased. This point was made forcefully a number of years ago by Gluckman: a rite in its final form is the summation of a large number of the behavior of persons via the articulated . . . this analysis may be applied deceased in different to the variation of death ceremonies with social ways status. One must note, however, that there is no mean for funeral rites and variation from it, a death creates a to the status, manner different social situation of death, of the deceased and each funeral involves according the participation of different in prescribed ways persons behaving 1937:124]. [Gluckman Also, we would expect that the facets of the social persona symbolically recognized in the mortuary ritual would shift with the levels of corporate participation in the ritual, and hence vary directly with the relative rank of the social position which the deceased occupied in life. The following contingencies have been offered by many investigators as the primary dimensions treatment: (1) age, (2) sex, (3) of the social persona given recognition in differential mortuary relative rank and distinctiveness of the social position occupied by the deceased within the social unit, and (4) the affiliation of the deceased with respect to membership segments of the broader social unit, or in the case of intersocietal symbolism, the form appropriate to the society itself. it was noted that peculiar circumstances surrounding the death of a person may Additionally, be perceived by the remaining members of a society as substantially altering the obligations of the survivors to acknowledge the social persona of the deceased as it was defined in life. Instead, such persons are treated as "members" of a post-mortem membership unit (those killed in war, those struck by lightning, etc.) and afforded mortuary ritual appropriate to such amembership group at the expense of recognition of other components of the social identity. The utility of any set of propositions ismeasurable by the degree that they serve as, or provoke, 18 APPROACHES TOMORTUARY PRACTICES [Memoir 25 the framing of testable hypotheses are and the frequency with which these tested hypotheses confirmed. As a preliminary test of the utility of the propositions advanced, I have deduced several rather obvious hypotheses and tested them on a body of data drawn from a sample of 40 non-state organized societies. The sample was drawn from the Human Relations Area Files. to be discussed relate to what has been termed structural variability The first two propositions in mortuary rites. It was argued that there should be a high degree of isomorphism between (a) the complexity of the status structure in a socio-cultural system and (b) the complexity of mortuary as ceremonialism of treatment differential regards persons status different occupying positions. This proposition could not be directly tested since in no case was the ethnographic description adequate either for determining all the forms that mortuary ritual might take in a single society or for determining the correlates for different forms. there were generalizations available in the literature regarding the characteristics Nevertheless, of the social persona differentiated ritually at burial. A number of descriptions of specific burial episodes abound, from which one could determine what characteristics of the deceased served as criteria for differential treatment. For this reason, each society was tabulated, not for the number of different patterns of mortuary treatment practiced, but for the number of dimensional distinctions (age, sex, social position, sub-group affiliation, cause of death, and location of death) recognized in the performance of formally differentiated mortuary practices. For instance, we might be informed that members of different clans were buried in separate cemeteries. This would us allow to that tabulate one was affiliation sub-group in terms dimension of which mortuary distinctions were made. We might not, however, know how many clans there were or how many formally distinct patterns of mortuary ritual were practiced. In spite of this inadequacy, it was reasoned that there should be a general correlation between the number of dimensional distinctions employed and the complexity of the status structure within the society, since the and combinations are distinctions of multi-dimensional permutations greater than for single or dichotomous dimensional distinctions. With regard to the other variable in the proposition, complexity of the status structure, the ethnographic literature was completely inadequate. I was unable to obtain adequate information of numbers complexity. measurement of status and or positions Rather its that a very crude index of complexity correlation accepted generally of The sample agriculturalists; settled the classifications groups in the given into grouped agriculturalists; to application measure and a diverse of group of subsistence four social pastoralists. in the "World Ethnographic Sample" I reasoned units, societal and was socio-cultural since there exists and production categories?hunters This grouping of of such a scale for be the forms of subsistence; might forms between was societies other any a great deal of time to the development to justify attempt for information systematic than devote complexity. gatherers; 1957) shifting accepting accomplished (Murdock a for the ethnic sample. is Information obtained from the sample of societies for these admittedly crude measurements summarized in Table 1. The results of the cross tabulations for subsistence categories with numbers of dimensional distinctions are given in Tables 2 and 3. there were no differences among hunters and gatherers, shifting agriculturalists, Statistically, and pastoralists. There is a meaningful difference between these three groups and the mean value for settled agriculturalists. The greater number of dimensional distinctions employed by settled that there should be a agriculturalists is viewed as evidence confirming the general proposition direct correlation between the structural complexity of mortuary ritual and status systems within socio-cultural systems. The second proposition which I have attempted to test also relates to the structure of mortuary the major dimensions which serve ritual. It is argued that among societies of minimal complexity, are based on the personal qualities of the individuals involved: age, sex, for status differentiation and differential capacities for performance of cultural tasks (Service 1962:54). On the other hand, among more complex socio-cultural systems status, positions may be defined in terms of more abstract characteristics related to the culturally designated and symbolized means employed for partitioning the socially organized human aggregate (see Service 1962:155). Given the proposition that distinctions made inmortuary ritual are made in terms of the social persona, the composite of 19 MOR TUAR Y PRA CTICES Binford] Table 1. Distribution of cultures. of dimensions f \ U ? <0 ^) distinguishing ? * ? ? in mortuary practices among a sample ? 3 3 Co ^ as symbolized status Co co Distinction Name X IDobrizhoffer 1822:223,268,271,173 I I I Abipon Symbolized X XXX Andamans XX Aleut Dubois 1944:19, 116,160,511 XX Alor X XX X Ashanti X XX X X Jivaro X X XX X Spier 1930:71-72 Delobson 1932:94-95,134-135; Mangin 1921:82-84 Tocantins 1877:37; Horton 1948:279 X X 1935:456-466 Warner X X XX X Nahane Nupe Nyakyusa Ostyak Olldea Karsten XX Klamath Mossi Mundurucu Murngin X X XX Iban Iroquois Schapera 1933:358-363; Schultze 1907:115 Roth 1892:120-122; Howell 1908:102 Morgan 1901:116, 168 X X Hottentot X X X X X X XX X G. Wilson X X Samoa Samoyed XX Siriono X Tallensi Tarahumara Loeb Stewart 1943:36; 1937:376 Kroeber Binford 1964 X Mead 1930:98-99 X X X X 1847:72-73; Rae Gifford 1926:288; and 1881:151 X Rattray X Linton 1933:126, 170-178 Bennett XX Tikopia XX X Tlingit XX X XX and Zingg 363 1935:236-239 X X X and Bohannan Bohannan 1953:79, 456-461,464 Jones 1914:151-152 Krause 1956:156-159: X MaUnowski 1929:153-154; Silas 1926:116-118 Schmitt 1952 Guisinde 1937:349, 1047-1054 Heizer Yurok_Xj_X 1927:352,371,390-394 Lhote 1944:85, 157-158; 1947 Firth 1936:180; Rivers 1914:513 X X Tiv Trobriands Witchita X Yahgan 1942 X Islavin 1954:228-241 M. Wilson Holmberg 1950:21,66,85-87 Tanala Taureg 1939:1-32; reference) (H.R.A.F. and Johnston Berndt XXXX Powhatan 1937:33,71,237,415,432-433,468-469 Honigmann 1954:138-139; 1949:204-245 Forde 1955:39-44 X Porno 159-162 144-145, 104, 70, X XX Bemba Copper Eskimo Formosans 1927:48, Roos 1931:81-83 Richards 1948:240-241 Rasmussen 1932:45 Jenness 174-176; 1922:92, Wiedfeldt reference) (H.R.A.F. 1919:24,37 X Bushman-Kau Rattray Gillen 1936:164 Longmore 1952:36-59 X BaramaCaribs Bapedi X Man 1932:141-146 Radcliffe-Brown 1922:106-113; 1925:21-25 Jochelson Sartschew 1806:77-78; | and Mills 1952:34, 41, 118, 152, 175 the social identities held in life, there should be a strong correspondence between the nature of the treatment and the characteristics dimensional serving as the basis for differential mortuary on a scale from societies for status differentiation criteria among arranged expected employed simple to complex. In the terms employed in this study, hunters and gatherers should exhibit more egalitarian 20 APPROACHES TOMORTUARY PRACTICES of 2. Number Table dimensional distinctions in mortuary symbolized [Memoir 25 summarized practices subsistence by category. distinctions Dimensional Hunters & Gatherers Settled Pastoralists Shifting agriculturalists agriculturalists Conditions of death 10 Location of death 11 2 Age 4 5 3 Sex 12 Social position 6 Social affiliation 4 cases Total 14 3 8 3. Average Table Subsistence 6 0 17 1 10 3 110 10 1 1 0 15 of dimensional number distinctions category. of dimensional number distinctions per category Average category by subsistence obtaining 1.73 1.75 3.14 and gatherers (1) Hunters (2) Shifting agriculturalists (3) Settled agriculturalists 1.66 (4) Pastoralists systems of status grading, while among settled agriculturalists we might expect more incidences of ranked or stratified non-egalitarian systems of status grading. Consequently, we would predict that age and sex should serve more commonly as bases for mortuary distinction among hunter and gatherers; while among agriculturalists, social position, as varying independently of age and sex as well as sub-group affiliation, should more commonly serve as the basis for differential mortuary treatment. To test this proposition, occurrence of various 1 was tabulated for the frequency given in Table the information dimensional distinctions the among four subsistence recognized of categories. The results of this tabulation are given in Table 2. This tabulation of features subsistence or age the hunters and social This differences. persona given Among shifting sex and sub-group 12 of gatherers, the observation among hunters in distinctive recognition agriculturalists, affiliation being our confirms almost mortuary social however, position and are gatherers in the differences (falling 15 cases some gave in social position recognition to not reducible to the regarding into the 4 correlation of and gatherers and the characteristic treatment. was most with recognized, commonly as common. as confirmatory taken are major the societies expectations The same pattern is repeated for settled agriculturalists, much more frequently recognized. The striking differences hunters there First, among recognized only six of the cases reported distinctions while the basis of status differentiation between material. provocative commonly Among categories). sex differences, sex some provides the social persona evidence for although conditions of death were noted between agriculturalists and the proposition advanced. Certainly among the agriculturalists, there are more societies that could be classified as tribes and chiefdoms, are more while among the hunters and gatherers, bands and tribes of minimal complexity common. using very crude measures The "tests," representative the postulated status of the categories positive structure relationships of characteristic any and applied are nevertheless employed, viewed socio-cultural system. cannot be considered as provocative the structure of mortuary between given to a sample which These and crude of indicative ceremonialism and the are confirmations signs that there are functional determinants which limit the complexity and forms of mortuary practices may be meaningfully with which multiple indicated in these social in system. The correlations any given by participants employed preliminary tabulations put the ax to naive assumptions often made in historical interpretations; viewed as encouraging hence the "freedom" i.e., that knowledge are sufficient of, or the transmission causes for their implementation of, ideas regarding diverse forms of mortuary and for changes in their distributional practice patterns. Binford] MORTUARY PRACTICES 21 Turning now to a consideration of the forms of mortuary variability, recall that it was argued that there were minimally two components ofthe social situation to be evaluated when attempting to understand the types of social phenomena symbolized or recorded in a burial situation. The first was the social persona of the deceased; the second was the composition and size of the social aggregate status recognizing the to responsibilities is argued It deceased. here that the second component will exert determinant effects on the form which mortuary rites will take. It is argued ritual and the degree that the actual performance of the ritual will that the locus of mortuary interfere with the normal activities of the community should vary directly with the number of duty status relationships obtaining between the deceased and other members of the community (scale of identity). In turn, the social scale of the deceased should vary directly with the relative rank of the social position held by the deceased. Given this argument, it is proposed that in societies, very young individuals should have very low rank and, hence, share egalitarian relations with a very limited number of people. Older persons can be expected to duty-status share duty-status relations with a greater occupy status positions of higher rank and, consequently, number of people. We can therefore predict that age differences may be discriminated inmortuary ritual by differential placement of burial sites within the life space of the community. The choice of placement would vary with status to the degree that the performance of the ritual involves members of the community at large in the ritual activity and thereby disrupts their daily activities. In order to test this proposition, that there may be other and explore the possibility correlations between of the social persona given recognition by differential characteristics and treatment mortuary the of form the ritual another discrimination, table was prepared making use of the same societies as tabulated in Table 1. To accomplish this, a crude nominal categorization for three variables was generated. The three variables selected were: (1) differential treatment of the body itself, (2) differential preparation of the facility in which the body was placed for to the burial furniture placed with the body (Table 4). disposal, and (3) differential contributions For each of these variables, were made. three nominal distinctions For the first ofthe body?three distinctions were tabulated: variable?treatment 1. Preparation of the body: distinctions made by differential washing, and/or exhibition of the body prior to graveside ritual. 2. Treatment of the body: distinctions made by differential mummification, mutilation, cremation. 3. Disposition of the body: distinctions made a scaffold, disposed of in the river, The second variable?differential preparation also broken down into three categories: 1. Form of the whether facility: there were differential architectural details, 2. Orientation 3. Location within reference of the facility a single formal characteristics in materials variations of facility: whether established by differential point, such in a grave, on disposition?placed etc. class of in which facility, the body was placed?was such as a sub-surface reserved for individuals of different used in construction, etc. the facility was differentially oriented with as cardinal angles, directions, solstice of the facility: whether the facility was differentially or in spatially differentiated burial locations. grave, status, size, respect to some etc. placed in the life space of the community, For the third variable?grave furniture?two independent categories were tabulated, that included the presence of both ofthe other two: 1. Form of the furniture: whether distinctions were made by including different plus a third forms of grave goods. 2. Quantity of goods: whether distinctions were made solely by the differential inclusion varying quantities of goods. 3. Form and quantity: whether distinctions were made by a simultaneous differentiation types of included goods and in quantities of goods. The results of this investigation are tabulated in Table 4. A number of interesting, and I might add unsuspected, associations are suggested in tabulations of Table 4. The first point is the degree that our predictions are verified regarding types of accommodation expected between the level of corporate involvement characteristic different funerals and the location employed for the disposal of the body with respect to the of in the the of life 22 APPROACHES TOMORTUAR YPRACTICES persona Location of Condition The Body (1) Preparation social ofthe 4. Characteristics Table 2 Sex Age Death of _ _ (3) Disposition in the treatment recognized (2) Treatment 2 1 [Memoir 25 Social Position Death ? ? - - 7 - of the dead. Social Affiliation ? 2 22 113-2 The Grave - The Furniture (7) Form only - ? 165 ? 1 and -9 8 15 3 - 9 (8) Quantity only (9) Form 1 Form 1-1-3 (4) (5) Orientation (6) Location 3 Quantity_-_-_-_ ~_ space of the community. In 7 out of 12 cases in which age was the feature of the social persona distinguished, differentiation was accomplished by the locations of graves of infants and children, as opposed to those of adults. Upon investigation, there appeared to be two general patterns: (1) burial of children under the house floor with adults buried in a cemetery or more public location, or (2) burial of children around the periphery of the settlement while adults may be buried at locations within the settlement. Both of these distributions, the cellular and the designated appear centrifugal, as alternative to accommodations the different levels of involvement corporate generated by the death of adults, as opposed to sub-adults, in certain types of societies. When a child dies within a society in which is not inherited, very few duty-status social position relationships outside of the immediate family are severed. The level of corporate involvement in the mortuary rites is thus largely at the familial level; the rites are performed either within the of the precincts family's "life space" or outside the life space of the wider society which therefore remains uninvolved in the mortuary rites. more location in keeping by latter accompanied In the with the of scale the processions burial case, through is frequently the Upon the social life of the local group is recognized life death of corporate of space in corporate the for power or when interment, situation frequently central noted in the greater such Frequently, community. or locations, facilities or for the internally remains stratified a cemetery stored. Another of the of the at large in the to the seats of of district leaders societies within studied. sample An analogous clustering of locational distinctions is noted for differentiations sodality, or sub-group affiliation. Examination of the cases revealed that societies membership groups (clans, kindreds, lineages, etc.) are present, each may maintain location, are burials in areas involve the community rulers are transported repositories cases of in participation in amore obtrusive fashion in a involvement. the wider settlement which by virtue of their placement necessarily rites. This type of spatial accommodation is noted when governmental are maintained?a their adults, by rites conducted grave. or charnel common In many house, in which form of differentiation cases in which sodalities members noted maintained are exclusively for membership separate buried with respect to inwhich various a distinct burial or their remains groups is the orientation cemeteries, the graves were differentially oriented with respect to topographic features of solar reference points commonly significant in the sodality origin mythology. Differentiations related to sex were of a totally different form. Most common were differences in the types of goods disposed of with the body. These differences were related to sex-differentiated and tools which male-female division of clothing, personalities, symbolized labor. Such distinctions frequently cross-cut additional ones made with regard to other dimensions ofthe social persona, such as membership group affiliation, social position, etc. in mortuary treatment related to social position or status of the deceased The differentiations exhibited the most variability in form. Similarly, they were the most complex; that is, many different forms of distinction were employed. Very high status persons may be buried in specific Binford] MOR TUAR Y PRA CTICES 23 locations, after elaborate and unusual preparation of the body, and accompanied with specific material symbols of office and large quantities of contributed goods. Low status persons in the same society may be differentiated by membership group affiliation and sex only, with no specific treatment to related In some status. status cases, take may over precedence in affiliation sodality mortuary symbolism, in direct proportion to the degree that the roles performed by the deceased were specifically related to the activities ofthe community at large, as opposed to being sub-group specific. of the obvious the modal of tendency was in the direction Regardless complexity, the specificity of the location of of and form and differentiation grave furnishings by quantity interment. Status was most commonly symbolized by status-specific "badges" of office and by the quantities of goods contributed to the grave furniture. related to the location at which death Although the number of cases were few, differentiations occurred (within the village, at a distant place) and the conditions of death (lightning struck, drowning, killed in war, etc.) were most commonly distinguished by differences in the treatment of the body itself and the location of the grave or repository for the remains. limited investigation of variability among a poorly structured sample of This admittedly societies is nevertheless judged sufficient to demonstrate a number of significant points. 1. The specific dimensions of the social persona commonly given recognition in differentiated ritual vary significantly with the organizational of the society as mortuary complexity measured by different forms of subsistence practice. 2. The number of dimensions of the social persona commonly given recognition in mortuary ritual varies significantly with the organizational complexity of the society, asmeasured by different forms of subsistence practice. in mortuary 3. The forms, which differentiations ritual take, vary significantly with the dimensions of the social persona symbolized. that the form and structure which characterize the These findings permit the generalization of the mortuary practices of any society are conditioned by the form and complexity organizational characteristics of the society itself. Change or variability in either form or structure must of into take the account communicated We must or determining of the society. limiting properties effects understand the forces on operating we findings, now may turn an to these by the nature or innovations practices ideational can way cause for change, variability, a socio-cultural the causal nature of changes which we might these on exerted no In or ideas be cited as a sufficient knowledge first understand parts. Given the organizational as a whole, system of the we may one of its component observe within evaluation or stability. then which assumptions have been basic to traditional historical interpretations of cultural variability. It was previously suggested that there were three propositions to a traditional fundamental historical interpretation. The first assumption was stated as follows: 1. Culture is a body of custom which arises in the context ofthe conceptual-intellectual life of varies directly as a function ofthe patterns of transmission and peoples and distributionally with differential capacities or opportunities for intellectual experience. In contrast, I argue is partitioned have systems of a into both the of and to operate form properties, its of variety bring of matter, energy, forms is never a sufficient must variables nature means extra-somatic systems composed and organizational content of alternative Other system. is man's culture conditions system knowledge that numerous formal As culture such, adaptation. and information. Cultural and the structure; content. structure Information and cause for formal change in a cultural about structural-organizational changes. A group of people may be fully aware of numerous alternative ways of disposing of a body, but until the organizational properties of their cultural system are altered, so as to increase the number of socially relevant categories of persons, new behavioral means for symboling differences will not be employed. Human populations of great necessary way whole the may perceive many features of their ranges of human behavior, yet while possibly conditions for potential change; this knowledge sufficient causes of cultural to alter its organizational change. properties Forces before must environment and have knowledge certain providing and perceptive operate on the limits to the insight are in no cultural this store of knowledge system as a can be drawn 24 APPROACHES TOMORTUARY PRACTICES [Memoir 25 upon for developing content elaborations, additions, and changes in the cultural system. The comparative study of forms of cultural content as a measure of variability in flow of structural variability alone information among and within cultural systems is misleading; among cultural systems strongly conditions the degree that information and knowledge will be translated into culturally organized behavior. Traditional historical interpretation ignores this systemic character of culture. The second assumption basic to traditional historical interpretation states: tradition were originally uniform and formally 2. The customs of a single socio-cultural distinct. This is the normative assumption which is disproven at every juncture, when we study the a single cultural system. Cultural systems are nature of variability observable within into component and segmented parts which are internally differentiated, partitioned, a customs can be The that into articulated system. functioning degree organizationally shown to be uniform within a cultural system is a direct measure of the degree that they are unrelated to the organizational characteristics differentiated among the components of the a cultural system is internally in context the of vast of human behavior The system. majority distributed among all participants, in direct relation to the differentiated and non-uniformly organizational complexity of the system. To assume that there should be a single mode of system is to assume that the disposal of the dead characteristic of any socio-cultural were of labor was absent. in and division of the undifferentiated roles, system participants The corollary of this assumption is:Multiple practices observed among any given set of socio-cultural units results from cultural mixing or hybridization in the past. It is argued that practices are to be expected given the varying degree of systemic complexity multiple observed among socio-cultural systems. The presence of multiple practices is to be viewed as the by-product of evolutionary processes operating at the systemic level, promoting varying and functional specialization within the cultural system degrees of structural differentiation itself. processes affecting the internal structure of the socio-cultural system may Evolutionary result in more diverse internal differentiations, which are accommodated behaviorally by the participants of the system. The forms these behavioral accommodations may take may well be conditioned by the universe of knowledge possessed by the participants in the system, as to types of accommodations employed by other peoples and by their compatibility with the sharing of similar forms of behavior among independent other groups. Nevertheless, of their experiencing be the by-product socio-cultural analogous but systems may independent the while evolutionary share systems processes a common in store a common environment of intersocietal relations, of knowledge. This same store of knowledge may be shared with societies not undergoing evolutionary change at the structural level. Sharing similar forms could in no way be viewed as cultural for the degree of mutual "cultural influence" might be no "mixing" or "hybridization," those societies undergoing change than that shared with those remaining greater among stable. Sharing forms of cultural content may result from the mutual phasing of evolutionary processes among interacting socio-cultural systems as reasonably as it can be viewed as the by-product of their degrees of interaction. our job is to explain observed similarities in terms of the operation of As anthropologists, it is not to make assumptions as to what similarities mean or processes; cultural-evolutionary to build "conjecturalhistories" 1958:5) by imposing on our observations (Radcliffe-Brown unverified interpretive principles or "laws." Traditional historical interpretations are rooted in naive assumptions regarding the processes which operate to promote change and variability in both form and structure among cultural systems. The final assumption is summarized as follows: the degree of formal 3. For practical purposes, similarity observed among independent cultural socio-cultural units is a direct measure of the degree of genetic or affiliational, relationship among This assumption the units compared. once again is grounded in the idealists' view of culture; that is, culture is a Binford] MORTUARY PRACTICES 25 ramifying reticulate stream of transmitted ideas and knowledge, variously crystallized at different points in space and time. This assumption ignores the possibility that there are processes selectively operating on a body of ideas or knowledge. Selective forces may favor or limit the implementation and incorporation of knowledge as the bases for action in cultural systems experiencing different systemic histories. and ideas are sufficient causes of that knowledge This assumption further presupposes cultural change and variability. Variability is to be viewed as the by-product of interruptions in the flow of information among human populations, while change may be viewed as the result of additions to accumulated knowledge, either originating through local innovations or arising from changes in patterns of information flow among societies. It is argued here that knowledge and ideas are not sufficient causes of cultural change or variability. Evolutionary result in processes operating selectively on different segments of human populations of the of and that vary genetic change configurations origins of the independently variability and themselves, as well as the contemporary patterns of communication populations transmission of knowledge and ideas. An attempt to view all cultural variability as ameasure of patterns of ideational innovation and communication ignores what as we, anthropologists, should be seeking to explain?the processes which result in the differential knowledge and ideas as implemented in independent socio-cultural systems. organization of OF OUR FINDINGS IMPLICATIONS FORCONTEMPORARY ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH data by anthropologists was undertaken to facilitate propositions and assumptions around which much of and speculation regarding the past is contemporary archaeological conjecture, interpretation, oriented. It is hoped that I have been successful in pointing out that idealistic assumptions are inadequate; differences in ideas regarding the processes of cultural change and differentiation are never and knowledge, while possibly relevant as prerequisites to change and differentiations, sufficient causes for such changes or differentiations. Further, variability in behavior or cultural practice are not exclusively explicable by reference to past contacts or influences among peoples; variability must be understood in terms of the organizational properties of the cultural systems themselves. It is only after we understand the organizational properties of cultural systems that we can meaningfully make comparisons among them in terms of culture content. The contemporary This survey of the treatment of mortuary an evaluation of the scientific value of many archaeologist's of making practice comparisons among cultural units in terms of inventories of cultural content, while making no attempt to isolate and understand the variables affecting the frequency or distribution of content in the cultural units studied, is a fruitless and, I fear, in the incidence of extended burial versus flexed meaningless pastime. Frequency differences burial, cremation "popularity" or versus degree of inhumation, intersocietal mound "influence." versus cemetery Variations burial, among etc., cultural are not units measures of in frequencies of various forms of mortuary treatment vary in response to (a) the frequency of the character symbolized by the mortuary form in the relevant population and (b) the number and distribution of different characteristics symbolized in mortuary treatment as a function of the complexity and degree of differentiation characteristic of the relevant society. This means that we, as archaeologists, must strive to develop methods which will permit us to record in terms of causative explain the observations which we make on the archaeological variables operative in the past. Traditional archaeologists have assumed that they know what these variables are and have proceeded to interpret the archaeological record in terms of assumed laws of cultural change and variability. 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