Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T12:40:50.871Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices in a Mesolithic Population from Wadi Haifa, Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2018

Arthur A. Saxe
Arthur A. Saxe*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Assuming an individual's treatment at death is a reflection of the position occupied in a status system in life, and that differences between individual interments reflect the type of status system participated in (e.g., egalitarian versus ranked), the outlines of extinct status systems should be ascertainable. This paper will present the results of such an attempt using data collected from the mesolithic occupation and burial site of Wadi Haifa, northern Sudan. These data include age, sex, pathology, treatment of the body, and mode of interment. The evidence argues for an egalitarian status system with differences in disposal associated with differences in age, sex, and personal achievement. Differences in mortality rates are examined in light of constraints placed on hunting and gathering societies. There is also evidence of post-marital residence favoring the husband's agnates.

Type
Research Article
Information
Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology , Volume 25: Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices , July 1971 , pp. 39 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bernt, R. M. 1962 Excess and Restraint. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Breed, Charles B., Hosmer, George L., and Bone, Alexander J. 1958 The principles and practice of surveying, Vol. 1, Elementary surveying. 9th edition. John Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Brookfield, H. C., and Brown, Paula 1963 Struggle for land: agriculture and group territories among the Chimbu of the New Guinea Highlands. Oxford University Press, population. New York.Google Scholar
Clarke, John I. 1965 Population geography. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Davis, J. S. 1965 Implications of prospective United States population growth in the 1960's. In Contemporary sociology, edited by Barron, M. L., pp. 283–296.Google Scholar
Glasse, R. M. 1965 The Huli of the Southern Highlands. In Gods, ghosts, and men in Melanesia, edited by Lawrence, P. and Meggitt, M. J., pp. 27–49. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hart, C. W. M., and Pilling, Arnold R. 1960 The Tiwi of North Australia. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Howells, William W. 1960 Estimating population numbers through archaeological and skeletal remains. In The application of quantitative methods in archaeology, edited by Heizer, R. F. and Cook, S. F.. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 28:158–185.Google Scholar
Johnston, Francis E., and Snow, Charles E. 1961 Reassessment of the age and sex of the Indian Knoll skeletal population: demographic and methodological aspects. A merican Journal of Physical Anthropology 19:237–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lévi-Strauss, Claude 1961 Tristes tropiques, translated by Russell, John. Criterion Books, New York.Google Scholar
Meggitt, M. J. 1965a The lineage system of the Mae Enga of New Guinea. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Meggitt, M. J. 1965b The Mae Enga of the Western Highlands. In Gods, ghosts and men in Melanesia, edited by Lawrence, P. and Meggitt, M. J., pp. 105–131. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Reay, M. O. 1959 The Kuma. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Smart, William M. 1962 Text-book on spherical astronomy, 5th edition. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Stewart, T. Dale 1962 Comments on the reassessment of the Indian Knoll skeletons. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 20:143–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
United States Nautical Office The American ephemeris and nautical almanac, U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Valentine, C. A. 1965 The Lakelai of New Britain. In Gods, ghosts and men in Melanesia, edited by Lawrence, P. and Meggitt, M. J., pp. 162–197. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Vallois, H. V. 1960 Vital statistics in prehistoric population as determined from archaeological data. In The application of quantitative methods in archaeology, edited by Heizer, R. F. and Cook, S. F.. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 28:181–222.Google Scholar
Warner, W. Lloyd 1958 A black civilization: a social study of an Australian tribe. Revised Edition, Harper, New York.Google Scholar
Wendorf, Fred (Editor) 1965 Contributions to the prehistory of Nubia. Southern Methodist University Contributions in Anthropology 1. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar