Quiz 2 Flashcards
Differences in treatment of dead express social distinctions (3)
- reconstructs sociopolitical structure
- deathways connected to status of person when alive, but also make social statements
- burial treatment
egalitarian
leadership open to all (achieved status)
inegalitarian
leadership base on genealogy (ascribed status)
ascribed status bases itself on
genealogy
achieved status bases itself on
age and sex
Moundville Chiefdom (Alabama) High Status Treatment
- burial in/ near mound
- copper
- vessels
- cult items
- gorget
Moundville Chiefdom (Alabama) Ascribed vs Achieved Status (2)
- infants given high status treatment mark ascribed status
- copper axes mark achieved status (actual rulers)
Memorial
for a bunch of people, creating memory of the dead, personal
Memorial examples (3)
- Day of the dead (offerings to deceased, remembering past lives
- picnic tables in Russia (important occasions celebrated with extended family
- eastern orthodox tradition (week after easter, hold memorial service to remember the day w/ prayers and food)
Commemoration
express actions/ value of the person –> embody values, may have magical/ spirit, center of national ritual
Commemoration examples (4)
- Tomb of unknown soldier (sacrifice)
- Lincoln Memorial (unity)
- Tomb of Napoleon (grandness/ of France)
- Mausoleum of Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey)
social memory
what impressions, emotions, memories people take away from funeral
American deathways and beautification of death movement
Mid-19th century cultural change in attitudes, ideology, and material culture associated with death
American Deathway before (4)
- Harsh, fact, reality
- death = time of judgement; living can do nothing but bruy corpse
- after life = kingdom of God
- impact pass rapidly
American Deathway Now (4)
- profound emotional experience
- through remembrance, dead not truly allowed to “depart”
- domestic paradise, reunite with family in after life
- prolong funeral mourning
Some shifts in Beautification of death (4)
- graveyard (crowded, gloomy) –> cemetery (serene, visits, leisure)
- simple headstone –> monument (stylized, emotional, makes mourning the object)
- coffins –> caskets
- body in shroud –> formal dress, embalming, cosmetics)
Beautification of Death Movement (3)
- Presentation of dead (displayed in beautiful surroundings)
- focus deathways on living instead of dead (tombstone: skeleton to mourning; “Here lies” –> “In memory of”)
- Minimize people’s exposure to death (funeral homes, elderly in homes and hospitals
Social Memory and American Deathways (4)
- Beautification
- family, funeral attendance reify social network (don’t attend, people shocked)
- denial of death and creat life-like corpse (at rest)
- peaceful, serenity, acceptance
Tlatico Female burial biographies Social Memory perspective (4)
- Deathways highlight individuality (graves unique) and social identity
- burial treatment express house wealth and beautification (sensual social appeal “so young and vibrant, had whole life ahead of her”)
- burial treatment reflect “effects death had on social relation of survivors)
- social persona defined through importance to house (death of young woman = loss of social glue)
Ancestor worship common in
societies organized by kinships (clans, lineages)
Veneration of apical ancestor
worship of person from inherit group, link person to founding ancestor of group
Ancestor Worship Characteristics (6)
- Family includes dead and living
- ancestors play active roles in society
- ancestors desire/ require things from living
- living desire, require things from ancestors (getting good fortune, Ex. children to continue descent line)
- ritual communication links living to dead
- concepts of reincarnation
Ancestral power (2)
- intermediaries with gods
- can punish
Ancestor Worship Deathways (3)
- protracted burial rites
- tangible reminders (parts) of ancestors
- worship linked to geographical place; burial created relationship between people and space
Japanese Ancestor Worship
- household altar (butsudari)
- pots-burial rituals guide deceased to become ancestor (sorei/ hotuke)
- 49 days to become buddhist spirit, enter realm of dead
- daily offerings; tea, rice
- Ie –> household, lineage
- worshipping ancestors basic Japanese civil code (ie duty)
- emphasizes genealogical community
- veneration part of social morality
- obon ceremony to welcome visits from ancestors (July, August)
- floating lanterns light way for spiritual return
Creating Ancestors in traditional Africa (6)
- good vs bad death (suicide, witches, childbirth death, execution, some diseases
- body transformation (edo a nigerian chief dried for 3 years before real burial)
- burial in seated position (superiority, chiefs and elders)
- proper grave (narrow tomb acts as making passage to another existence (ancestral one) tombs = uterus, granaries, huts)
- beautification of the dead
- social memory (curated skulls, teeth, object; objects used daily are himself; shrines for ancestral memory
Feeding ancestors in Koma culture
ancient figurines have cavities in nostrils, ears, mouths, tops of head (food reminants found)
Zulu deathways - turning spirits into ancestors (4)
- death a process
- rituals, feats, sacrifices propel spirit into realm of ancestors
- liminality in rites of passage
- ancestires involved in life of living
Zulu death is a process
funeral acts as preperation for deceased person to enter life of the dead
Zulu rituals, feats, sacrifice to propel spiirt into realm of ancestors
spirit considered held within body, must be talked through process of entering afterlife, family memebrs will speak with past ancestors to help new spirit complete journey
Zulu liminality in rites of passage
funeral attendants invert traditional roles in life as if they were deceased (use left hand, enter house in reverse)
Zulu ancestries involved in life of living
retrieval of reconciliation, spirit of deceased fetched from grave and brought home. Zulu people receive visits from ancestor to indicate need to be fed, eating sexual intercourse not done alone
Mayan Ancestor Veneration (2)
- ancestors don’t stay ancestors, names are recycled to give soul immortality
- anectors watch over people (depicted in pictures where rulers are watched over by ancestors)
Mayan burials
express family continuity, keep ancestral bones safe, dead share house with living (“genealogy of place”)
Mayan reunion of bones (3)
- grave symbolizes living social order
- dead society parallel living society
- kinship strong –> collective burial
