Death rituals, social order, and the archaeology of immortality in the ancient world : death shall have no dominion / edited by Colin Renfrew, Michael J. Boyd, Iain Morley.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Renfrew, Colin, 1937-2024, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Funeral rites and ceremonies, Ancient.

Death--Social aspects.

Death.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiii, 443 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Death Rituals, Social Order & the Archaeology of Immortality in the Ancient World

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Modern archaeology has amassed considerable evidence for the disposal of the dead through burials, cemeteries and other monuments. Drawing on this body of evidence, this book offers fresh insight into how early human societies conceived of death and the afterlife. The twenty-seven essays in this volume consider the rituals and responses to death in prehistoric societies across the world, from eastern Asia through Europe to the Americas, and from the very earliest times before developed religious beliefs offered scriptural answers to these questions. Compiled and written by leading prehistorians and archaeologists, this volume traces the emergence of death as a concept in early times, as well as a contributing factor to the formation of communities and social hierarchies, and sometimes the creation of divinities.

Contents:

Cover; Half-title; Frontispiece; Title page; Copyright information; Epigraph; Table of contents; List of illustrations; List of tables; List of contributors; Preface; 1 'The Unanswered Question': Investigating Early Conceptualisations of Death; Part I Intimations of Mortality; Part II Mortality and the Foundations of Human Society: Sedentism and the Collective; Part III Constructing the Ancestors; Part IV Death, Hierarchy, and the Social Order; Part V Materiality and Memory; Part VI Intimations of Immortality: Glimpsing Other Worlds; Part VII Responses and Reactions: Concluding Thoughts

IndexIntroduction; Cognitive Archaeology; The Place of Religion in the Study of Early Responses to Death; Encountering Death: The Material Evidence; Intimations of Mortality: Before Homo Sapiens; Mortality and the Foundations of Human Society: Sedentism, the Collective, and the House; Constructing the Ancestors; Materiality and Memory; Hierarchy and the Social Order; Intimations of Immortality: Glimpsing other Worlds; Bibliography; 2 Non-Human Animal Responses towards the Dead and Death: A Comparative Approach...

3 Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Mortuary Behaviours and the Origins of Ritual Burial4 Upper Palaeolithic Mortuary Practices: Reflection of Ethnic Affiliation...; 5 Gathering of the Dead? The Early Neolithic Sanctuaries of Göbekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey; 6 Death and Architecture: The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Burials at WF16, Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan; 7 Corporealities of Death in the Central Andes (ca. 9000-2000 BC); 8 Mediating the Dominion of Death in Prehistoric Malta; 9 House Societies and Founding Ancestors in Early Neolithic Britain; 10 Constructing Ancestors in Sub-Saharan Africa

11 Different Kinds of Dead: Presencing Andean Expired Beings12 Putting Death in Its Place: The Idea of the Cemetery; 13 Becoming Mycenaean? ; 14 Life and Death in Late Prehistoric to Early Historic Mesopotamia; 15 The Big Sleep: Early Maya Mortuary Practice; 16 De-Paradoxisation of Paradoxes by Referring to Death as...; 17 Death and Mortuary Rituals in Mainland Southeast Asia: From Hunter-Gatherers to the God Kings of Angkor; 18 How Did the Mycenaeans Remember? Death, Matter, and Memory in the Early Mycenaean World

19 Eternal Glory: The Origins of Eastern Jade Burial and Its Far-Reaching Influence20 Eventful Deaths - Eventful Lives? Bronze Age Mortuary Practices...; 21 Northern Iroquoian Deathways and the Re-imagination of Community; 22 Locating a Sense of Immortality in Early Egyptian Cemeteries; 23 Buddhist and Non-Buddhist Mortuary Traditions...; 24 Killing Mummies: On Inka Epistemology and Imperial Power; 25 'Death Shall Have No Dominion': A Response; 26 Comments: Death Shall Have No Dominion; 27 The Muse of Archaeology; Introduction; Conclusions; Acknowledgements; Notes; References; Introduction

Types of Mortuary Activity

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 11 Nov 2015).

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

ISBN:

1-316-36562-X

1-316-37162-X

1-316-37562-5

1-316-37762-8

1-316-37862-4

1-316-37662-1

1-316-37462-9

1-316-01450-9