Ash, bone, and memories are all that remains after cremation. Yet for societies and communities, the act of cremation after death is highly symbolic, rich with complex meaning, touching on what it means to be human. In the process of transforming the dead, the family, the community, and society as a whole create and partake in cultural symbolism. Cremation is a key area of archaeological research, but its complexity has been underappreciated and undertheorized.
'Transformation by Fire' offers a fresh assessment of archaeological research on this widespread social practice. Editors Ian Kuijt, Colin P. Quinn, and Gabriel Cooney’s volume examines cremation by documenting the material signatures of cremation events and processes, as well as its transformative impact on social relations and concepts of the body. Indeed, examining why and how people chose to cremate their dead serves as an important means of understanding how people in the past dealt with death, the body, and the social world.
The contributors develop new perspectives on cremation as important mortuary practices and social transformations. Varying attitudes and beliefs on cremation and other forms of burial within the same cultural paradigm help us understand what constitutes the body and what occurs during its fiery transformation. In addition, they explore issues and interpretive perspectives in the archaeological study of cremation within and between different cultural contexts. The global and comparative perspectives on cremation render the book a unique contribution to the literature of anthropological and mortuary archaeology.
Author(s): Ian Kuijt, Colin P. Quinn, Gabriel Cooney (eds.)
Series: Amerind Studies in Anthropology
Publisher: The University of Arizona Press
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 332
City: Tucson
Acknowledgments vii
Colin P. Quinn, Ian Kuijt, and Gabriel Cooney. Introduction. Contextualizing Cremations 3
PART I. Fire and the Body. Reframing Perspectives on Cremation
1. Colin P. Quinn, Lynne Goldstein, Gabriel Cooney, and Ian Kuijt. Perspectives — Complexities of Terminologies and Intellectual Frameworks in Cremation Studies 25
PART II. Connecting Treatments of the Body. Cremation and Inhumation as Social Practices
2. Liv Nilsson Stutz and David Hurst Thomas. Perspectives - Socially Responsible and Culturally Conscious Approaches to Cremations in the New and Old World 35
3. Åsa M. Larsson and Liv Nilsson Stutz. Reconcilable Differences. Cremation, Fragmentation, and Inhumation in Mesolithic and Neolithic Sweden 47
4. Mark R. Schurr and Della Collins Cook. The Temporal and Cultural Contexts of the Enigmatic Cremations from the Yokem Site, Illinois, USA 67
5. Howard Williams. A Well-Urned Rest. Cremation and Inhumation in Early Anglo-Saxon England 93
6. Joanna Brück. Cremation, Gender, and Concepts of the Self in the British Early Bronze Age 119
PART III. Social Impact of Cremation. Transformation, Movement, and the Body
7. Liv Nilsson Stutz and Ian Kuijt. Perspectives — Reflections on the Visibility of Cremation as a Physical Event 143
8. Jessica I. Cerezo-Román. Pathways to Personhood. Cremation as a Social Practice Among the Tucson Basin Hohokam 148
9. Tim Flohr Sørensen. Re/turn. Cremation, Movement, and Re-collection in the Early Bronze Age of Denmark 168
10. Gabriel Cooney. The Role of Cremation in Mortuary Practice in the Irish Neolithic 189
11. Lynne Goldstein and Katy Meyers. Transformation and Metaphors. Thoughts on Cremation Practices in the Precontact Midwestern United States 207
PART IV. Reassembling the Pieces. Future Directions
12. Mark R. Schurr. Reflections — Techniques, Potential, and Challenges of Cremations 235
13. Jessica I. Cerezo-Román and Howard Williams. Future Directions for the Archaeology of Cremation 240
References Cited 257
Contributors 309
Index 313
