Abstract

BUTLER, Michelle M.. Identity and funerary practices of the Early Classic Oaxaca Coast. An. antropol. [online]. 2020, vol.54, n.1, pp.81-92.  Epub Jan 15, 2021. ISSN 2448-6221.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iia.24486221e.2020.1.68709.

This paper explores the relationships between the people, objects and practices that created an Early Classic communal mortuary space at the site of Charco Redondo in the lower Río Verde Valley. The Early Classic followed the collapse of the first regional attempt at political integration, and significant changes in mortuary practice reflect an ideological transformation regarding the expression of identity in death. Bioarchaeological data, as well as isotopic analyses, indicate that individuals interred in the Early Classic cemetery included both local and non-local decedents, all age and sex groups, and an array of positions. Individuals were buried separately with a variety of offerings and displayed kin-relatedness as determined through an intracemetery biodistance analysis. This is in contrast to Late and Terminal Formative Period communal interment practices, characterized by highly disturbed burials and limited individual offerings, suggesting a move towards indelibly marking individual identity and one’s position in the social hierarchy. Despite this, people continued to reference preexisting understandings of the world through communal burial. Special attention is given to how new social valuables acquired through elite networks and reallocated in traditional communal ritual may have aided in normalizing new definitions of identity evident in the Early Classic mortuary data.

Keywords : Funerary patterns; Funeral offerings; Feasting; Mesoamerica.

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