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Power, Personhood and Changing Emotional Engagement with Children's Burial during the Egyptian Predynastic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2020

Pablo Barba Open the ORCID record for Pablo Barba [Opens in a new window]
Pablo Barba*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, LondonWC1H 0PYUK Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Archaeological analyses of child funerary remains have often revolved around discussions of ascribed status and demographic trends. Other social and spatial dimensions of child burial are often left unexplored. This article introduces a novel perspective, through the analysis of child burials in Predynastic Egypt. My analysis focuses on the changing rates and spatial distribution of child burials in community necropoleis, with special attention to how their placement was used to renegotiate power relationships, and perhaps even concepts of personhood, in Predynastic society. The importance of children's funerals for creating of a sense of community through attachment to place is also considered. Criticizing analyses that rely on quantitative data to the exclusion of other factors, I emphasize the contribution of childhood, practice theory, emotions and personhood for the study of social complexity. My arguments point towards significant changes in the emotional dimension of children's funerary practices experienced during the later fourth millennium bc, and links these transformations to processes of state formation in Egypt.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , May 2021 , pp. 211 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

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