Recent accounts of the investigation of social organisation as reflected in mortuary practices have been based on role theory. If the notion of roles is deemed to be part of an inadequate conception of social systems, then it is necessary to reconsider existing archaeological approaches to burial data. Burial ritual is susceptible to ideological manipulation within the construction of social strategies. An analysis of mortuary practices in modern and Victorian England leads to an interpretation both in terms of the way the dead are seen by the living and in terms of the social relationships between competing groups. Since the Victorian era when burial ritual was a forum for the display of wealth and status, the dead have come to be seen more and more as unwanted matter to be disposed of quickly, without extravagance. This development, involving changes in the use of cremation and in the physical traces of the burial, is part of the increased use of hygiene, science and medicine as agencies of social control, and is related to a decrease in the use of conspicuous wealth consumption for social advertisement. Finally, a series of general propositions are advanced concerning the study and interpretation of mortuary practices.

Introduction

In the last ten years there have been many developments in the reconstruction of past social systems from the material remains of mortuary rituals. There have been several attempts to provide linking principles between the material culture associated with mortuary practices and the form of social organisation (Saxe 1970; Binford 1972; Brown 1971; Shennan 1975; Goldstein 1976; Tainter 1977; Peebles & Kus 1977).