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Older Burial Disturbance: Postfunerary Manipulation of Graves and Corpses in Precontact Northeastern Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2022

Ana Solari Open the ORCID record for Ana Solari [Opens in a new window] ,
Sergio F. S. M da Silva ,
Anne Marie Pessis ,
Gabriela Martin  and
Niede Guidon
Ana Solari*
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Arqueologia, Paleontologia e Ambiente do Semiárido do Nordeste do Brasil and Fundação Museu do Homem Americano, São Raimundo Nonato, Brazil
Sergio F. S. M da Silva
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arqueologia–UFPE, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Recife, Brazil
Anne Marie Pessis
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Arqueologia, Paleontologia e Ambiente do Semiárido do Nordeste do Brasil and Fundação Museu do Homem Americano, São Raimundo Nonato, Brazil
Gabriela Martin
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Arqueologia, Paleontologia e Ambiente do Semiárido do Nordeste do Brasil and Fundação Museu do Homem Americano, São Raimundo Nonato, Brazil
Niede Guidon
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Arqueologia, Paleontologia e Ambiente do Semiárido do Nordeste do Brasil and Fundação Museu do Homem Americano, São Raimundo Nonato, Brazil
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
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Abstract

At times funerary practices do not end with the deposition of the corpses in their final resting place, because occasionally these supposedly definitive burials are disturbed later. When we can confirm that people were mainly responsible for these disturbances, even when other natural taphonomic factors are present, then we have a situation of anthropic postfunerary manipulation of bodies and graves. Some precontact sites in northeastern Brazil have mortuary contexts with “anomalies” in the deposition of bodies into their graves. Applying a taphonomy-based approach, we analyze these cases and compare them to other burials with similar characteristics from central-eastern Brazil in our discussion of the “alternative” phenomenon of postburial manipulation. The evidence suggests that the anthropic disturbance of older burials and corpses should be understood not as a random event, but as an integral and meaningful part of the mortuary practices of ancient inhabitants from across different regions of Brazil throughout the Holocene. With this work we highlight not only unusual mortuary patterns of precontact human groups in Brazil and South America but also the importance of a taphonomic approach to understanding the complexity and variability of funerary and postfunerary actions.

Às vezes as práticas funerárias não terminam com a deposição dos cadáveres em seu local de descanso final, porque ocasionalmente esses sepultamentos supostamente definitivos são posteriormente perturbados. Quando podemos confirmar que as pessoas foram as principais responsáveis por esses distúrbios, mesmo quando outros fatores tafonômicos naturais estão presentes, então temos uma situação de manipulação antrópica pós-funerária de corpos e sepulturas. Alguns sítios pré-contato no nordeste do Brasil evidenciam contextos mortuários com “anomalias” na deposição dos corpos em suas sepulturas. Aplicando uma abordagem baseada na tafonomia, analisamos esses casos e os comparamos com outros sepultamentos com características semelhantes do centro-leste do Brasil, para discutir o fenômeno “alternativo” da manipulação pós-funerária. As evidências sugerem que a perturbação antrópica de sepultamentos e corpos mais antigos deve ser entendida não como um evento fortuito, mas potencialmente como parte integrante e significativa das práticas mortuárias dos antigos habitantes de diferentes regiões do Brasil durante todo o Holoceno. Com este trabalho, contribuiremos para somar conhecimentos sobre padrões mortuários incomuns de grupos humanos pré-contato no Brasil e na América do Sul. Além disso, destacamos a importância de uma abordagem tafonômica para compreender a complexidade e variabilidade das ações funerárias e pós-funerárias.

Keywords

burial disturbancepostfunerary manipulationarchaeothanatologyfunerary practicesBrazilian archaeologysepultamentos perturbadosmanipulação pós-funeráriaarqueotanatologiapráticas funeráriasarqueologia brasileira
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 824 - 837
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

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