status

So next the upcoming week's topic is status, which in my opinion can mean a ton of different things. The traditional archaeological definition of status from my understanding is the differential labels placed on a person based on their marriage/family lineage, property ownership, and accumulation of wealth. A high status is something to be reveared, like that of a king or master of his craft, and often defines the type of power and wealth you have access too. This status shapes the view of how all people that you interact with, perceive and treat you.

Now beyond the traditional wealth and power status, there are many other definitions. For instance relationship status, single or married? Mistresses, how many? This states the availability of one to be offered, or approached for marriage. Or the status of progress on a customer's new sword, completed or not? This more flexible definition of status can be applied to many different situations, as this definition applies to the current situation of anything at all.

To measure the traditional view of status, I believe that the sum of a person's individual/family wealth, position in the hierarchy, and personal belongings are the best way to designate a status. This is problematic for archaeologists because their criteria of  position in hierarchy is only distinguishable based on the grave goods provided, as the verbal record is obviously not available. As seen on p.203 of Parker Pearson's article The Powerful Dead: Archaeological relationships between the living and the dead, he states that although many people specify to their families how they want to be buried, and what to be buried with, the family members responsible for the burial don't always do as the deceased wished, instead how they think it should be, or how they want their family to be perceived. This is problematic for archaeologists because what they may find is an array of objects that belonged to the deceased, as well as various objects from their family, thus not painting a picture of who the deceased was, but what that whole particular family was like(or wanted to be like). These items and situations are still of great value for archaeologists because it provides them with a material account of posessions from a whole family, but they have no definite way of proving whether it was only the individual's belongings, or those belonging to a dynasty.

While status for a certain individual is difficult to prove based on grave goods because of a possible discrepancy between the deceased's wishes and the family's actions, any wealth of objects found in a grave can help archaeologists reconstruct the social and personal beliefs and interests of those that lived long before us. Maybe a mound full of mismatched items can actually provide us with an understanding of family values and love, or maybe it just proves to us that no matter what society or age you're in, your family always thinks they know what is better for you than you do yourself. Either way, archaeologists definitely have their work cut out for them.

Here's the link to Pearson's article
http://sfx.uvic.ca:3210/sfxlcl3?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The+Powerful+Dead:+Archaeological+Relationships+between+the+Living+and+the+Dead&rft.jtitle=Cambridge+Archaeological+Journal&rft.au=Pearson,+Mike+Parker&rft.date=1993-10-01&rft.issn=0959-7743&rft.volume=3&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=203&rft.externalDBID=n/a&rft.externalDocID=076700100003
  Alright, that's enough for tonight.


See you all in class,

-B

alternative death rituals...here's where i get creepy

So, being that I have no problem looking at dead people, I was pretty excited when Erin chose this as a blog prompt this week. Fresh off today's lecture on mummies, I was feeling inspired...a mummy high if you will, and I remembered a death ritual I discovered about a year ago, Victorian post mortem photography. This death ritual became popular in the 19th century, as the infant mortality rate was unusually high and many children weren't alive long enough to have a 'proper' photograph taken of them. Pictures were also a way of capturing the last remaining image of a loved one, which is why so many of the people are propped up in action poses, or posed with their eyes open. If you look closely, sometimes you can see that the eyelids are shut, but have eyes painted on, or you can see wire rods attached to the deceased, the only thing holding them up in a 'living' position. The families often do this because they want to remember the person at their best, not remember a  corpse. But then again, many photos are depicted as the deceased in a peaceful slumber, so the practice and composition of the picture really depends on the family's wishes. So here, I will attach a link to some examples of post mortem photography. Please, if you can't handle seeing dead people with their eyes open, or many deceased infants, DO NOT OPEN.

http://ken_ashford.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/creepy-post-mortem-photos-from-the-victorian-age.html

and here's a link to an organization who still offers this service, targeting families who have just lost a newborn, or young child.

http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/about_us/

But since that was a death ritual I already knew about, I found another...the Aghori, a Hindu cult that is known for eating the remains of dead animals and human flesh, drinking human blood and urine, and use the skull of the deceased for ritual practices. A more succinct quote from the anthropologist Henry Balfour, upon his encounter with the tribe explains it all...

“They go about nude, with a fresh skull in their hands, of which they had previously eaten the putrid flesh, and afterwards scraped out the brain and eyes with their fingers, into which is poured blood, urine, and whatsoever is given them to drink, and to this they pretend to be indifferent whether it be ardent spirits of water. The Aghori is an object of terror and disgust as they roam the Indian countryside, but on being approached they once bolted into the jungle and cannot be tracked. The habits of these (Aghori) are said to be of the filthiest possible descriptions; they stick at nothing, and will eagerly devour human flesh, human or other excreta, and drink urine.”

What I found interesting about these fine people, is that most Hindu sects don't drink alcohol, or eat meat, and the Aghori do both of these, daily in their rituals. I won't summarize the whole article because this post would be HUGE, but do read it, it's very interesting.

http://factoidz.com/the-aghori-hinduism-cannibalism-and-immortality/

Until next week,

Baylie

my own grave

Well, being this is an excellent opportunity to confuse and amuse future generations, I would choose to include a fair variety of items in my grave. If a pet happened to die along with me, I would want them included in my grave (but no sacrifice please) on the off chance what you're buried with actually does take you into the afterlife, and if not, it will at least show that I had some  great amount of affection for my animals. Also included, would be my rather large and interesting jewellery collection, plugs included. This would give archaeologists a great time trying to link the current trend of ear stretching with those of african tribes that have also taken part in this practice, and I have an odd amount of skulls and symbols in my jewellery collection, another interpretation wonder. It would hopefully give interpreters an indicator of the varied styles and interests I had in my living days, helping to paint a picture of the different (and sometimes odd) styles I wore. Kitchen gadgets would also be a great indicator of lifestyle, as I have quite a few flashy polka-dotted, and numerous grinders,graters, and peelers...an interesting indicator of our times, and something that made one of my favourite hobbies more convenient. The last category of items I would include is food/packaging. How interesting would it be to crack into a grave mound and discover glass bottles, labels intact? To possibly have a language recorded, and discovered centuries later on a glass food container.

So, this would be my list of accoutrements I would wish to carry with me into the grave. It turns out i'm not that different from any other person in any other century buried with personal posessions on their grave. I, like many of those before me, want pets, food, jewellery/beauty items, and food service items placed in my grave to follow me as my legacy, and an indicator of the times I lived in.Now that I have had to give this some thought, i'm seriously thinking that purposely arranging personal items into your grave is an amazing opportunity to pass something along to future generations. If it gets that far.

Until next time,

Baylie

an introduction of sorts

Well, my name is Baylie and i'm a 4th year Sociology major with a concentration on social justice and social change. My research interests fall mostly within the subject of contemporary drug use and government policies, and any facet of deviance and crime. I fell in love with anthropology in my second year of college after reading an article on drug use by, in my opinion the best anthropologist on the subject (and a British Columbia native) Wade Davis. His rich background in ethnobotany, anthropology, and many field expeditions into regions and contact with tribes I can only dream of (hatian zombii's for example) led me to taking Erin's previous 392 course about Vikings. I enjoyed it so much that a course on death was the only logical next step for me. (I'm starting to think I should have taken a minor in anthro...)

Anyways, after taking Erin's fall Anthro course, I had to take "To the Grave and Beyond" as i've had a morbid obsession with death and cemeteries since I was a young child. A rather peaceful place, I was always interested in how different families in different regions and time periods valued different rituals, and ways of presenting their dead for the uncertain journey into the afterlife. It is the ritual, and the significance of such practices that I am most excited about in opening the dialogue for this course, for they explain a great deal about the belief systems for both during life, and the afterlife. My personal experiences with unnerving spiritual phenomena has also kept me interested in the study of different cultural beliefs of the spirit world and the afterlife, and that is what has brought me to this moment. At times my blog may ramble, but I will try to keep it as to the point as possible, but I am known to include some interesting/non-relevant tidbits as I go.

I hope you all enjoy this class as much as I am going to, and I look forward to working with some of you on our group project.