Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Body as Material Culture

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Bioarchaeology

Part of the book series: Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique ((MATT))

Abstract

Viewing the body in ways that go beyond age, sex, stature, and presence or absence of nutritional deficiencies, disease, and trauma requires researcher to consider the life history of the individual. It is critical for researchers to remember that individuals assumed multiple identities throughout their lifetime and that they lived in dynamic and relational social environments that continually influenced their body. Ritual and ceremonial activities that involve the body and that can be seen on human remains include cultural modifications of the body, warfare, cannibalism, torture, and captivity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alt, K. W., & Pichler, S. (1998). Artificial modifications of human teeth. In K. W. Alt, F. Rosing, & M. Teschler-Nicola (Eds.), Dental anthropology fundamentals, limits and prospects (pp. 387–415). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ames, K. M., & Maschner, H. D. G. (1999). Peoples of the northwest coast: Their archaeology and prehistory. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arens, W. (1979). The man eating myth. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashmore, W., & Geller, P. L. (2005). Social dimensions of mortuary space. In G. F. M. Rakita, J. E. Buikstra, L. A. Beck, & S. R. Williams (Eds.), Interacting with the dead: Perspectives on mortuary archaeology for the new millennium (pp. 81–92). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, S. A. (1990). Rattlesnake Ruin (42Sa 18434): A case of violent death and perimortem mutilation in the Anasazi culture of San Juan County, Utah. Unpublished MA thesis, Brigham Young University, Provo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billman, B. R., Lambert, P. M., & Leonard, B. L. (2000). Cannibalism, warfare, and drought in the Mesa Verde region in the twelfth century AD. American Antiquity, 65, 1–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blom, D. E. (2005). Embodying borders: Human body modification and diversity in Tiwanaku society. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 24(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blondiaux, J., Fontaine, C., Demondion, X., Flipo, R.-M., Colard, T., Mitchell, P. D., et al. (2012). Bilateral fractures of the scapula: Possible archeological examples of beatings from Europe, Africa and America. International Journal of Paleopathology,edited by Helen Codere. 2(4), 223–230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boas, F. (1966). Kwakiutl Ethnography, edited by Helen Codere. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewis, A. A. (1992). Anthropological perspectives on infanticide. Arizona Anthropologist, 8, 103–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbonell, E., Cáceres, I., Lozano, M., Saladié, P., Rosell, J., Lorenzo, C., et al. (2010). Cultural cannibalism as a paleoeconomic system in the European Lower Pleistocene: The case of level TD6 of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Current Anthropology, 51(4), 539–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carmen, R. A., Guitar, A. E., & Dillon, H. M. (2012). Ultimate answers to proximate questions: The evolutionary motivations behind tattoos and body piercings in popular culture. Review of General Psychology, 16(2), 134–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chacon, R. J., Chacon, Y., & Guandinango, A. (2007). The Inti Raymi festival among the Cotacachi and Otavalo of Highland Ecuador. In R. J. Chacon & R. G. Mendoza (Eds.), Latin American indigenous warfare and ritual violence (pp. 116–141). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chacon, R. J., & Dye, D. H. (2007a). Introduction to human trophy taking: An ancient and widespread practice. In R. J. Chacon & D. H. Dye (Eds.), The taking and displaying of human body parts as trophies by Amerindians (pp. 5–31). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chacon, R. J., & Dye, D. H. (2007b). The taking and displaying of human body parts as trophies by Amerindians. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Codere, H. (1990). Kwakiutl: Traditional culture. In W. Suttles (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7: Northwest coast. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, E. (2008). Southeast Asian ethnic tourism in a changing world. Asian Anthropology, 7(1), 25–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conroy, G., Weber, G., Seidler, H., Recheis, W., Nedden, D. Z., & Haile, J. (2000). Endocranial capacity of the bodo cranium determined from three-dimensional computed topography. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 113, 111–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, S. R., Ling, X., & Stone, K. (1997). Consequences of foot binding among older women in Beijing, China. American Journal of Public Health, 87(10), 1677–1679.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daems, A., & Croucher, K. (2007). Artificial cranial modification in prehistoric Iran: Evidence from crania and figurines. Iranica Antiqua, 42, 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daniell, C. (1997). Death and burial in medieval England, 1066–1550. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darling, A. J. (1998). Mass inhumation and the execution of witches in the American southwest. American Anthropologist, New Series, 100(3), 732–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, M. (1992). Purity and danger: An analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo. New York: Routledge. (Original work published 1966)

    Google Scholar 

  • Durán, D. (1951). Historia de las Indias de Nueva España y Islas de la tierra firme (D. Heyden & F. Horcasitas, Trans.). Mexico City: Editora Nacional.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flower, W. H. (1881). Fashion in deformity: As illustrated in the customs of barbarous and civilised races. London: MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furst, P. T. (1996). Myth as history, history as myth: A new look at some old problems in Huichol origins. In S. B. Schaefer & P. T. Furst (Eds.), People of the peyote: Huichol Indian history, religion, and survival (pp. 26–60). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaither, C. (2012). Cultural conflict and the impact on non-adults at Puruchuco-Huaquerones in Peru: The case for refinement of the methods used to analyze violence against children in the archeological record. International Journal of Paleopathology, 2(2–3), 69–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, R. (1963). Dead birds. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimes, J. E. (1964). Huichol syntax. The Hague: Mouton and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosman, L., Munro, N. D., & Belfer-Cohen, A. (2008). A 12,000-year-old Shaman burial from the southern Levant (Israel). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(46), 17665–17669.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, S. (2006). Skull trophies of the Pacific War: Transgressive objects of remembrance. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 12(4), 817–836.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinz, D. (1999). The last passage: Recovering a death of our own. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubert, J. (2000). Madness, disability and social exclusion: The archaeology and anthropology of “difference”. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulme, P. (1986). Colonial encounters: Europe and the native Caribbean, 1492–1797. London: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ichord, L. F. (2000). Toothworms and spider juice: An illustrated history of dentistry. Brookfield: Millbrook.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiménez-Brobeil, S. A., du Souich, P., & Al Oumaoui, I. (2009). Possible relationship of cranial traumatic injuries with violence in the south-east Iberian Peninsula from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 140(3), 465–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Judd, M. A. (2002). Ancient injury recidivism: An example from the Kerma period of ancient Nubia. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 12, 89–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuckelman, K. A. (2007). The archaeology of Sand Canyon Pueblo: Intensive excavations at a late-thirteenth-century village in southwestern Colorado [HTML title]. Cortez: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from www.crowcanyon.org/sandcanyon

  • Kuckelman, K. A., Lightfoot, R. R., & Martin, D. L. (2002). The bioarchaeology and taphonomy of violence at Castle Rock and Sand Canyon Pueblos, Southwestern Colorado. American Antiquity, 67, 486–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert, P. M. (1999). Human skeletal remains. In B. R. Billman (Ed.), The Puebloan occupation of the Ute Mountain Piedmont, Vol. 5: Environmental and bioarchaeological studies. Phoenix: Publications in Archaeology, No. 22, Soil Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert, P. M. (2000). Violent injury and death in a Pueblo II-III sample from the southern Piedmont of sleeping Ute Mountain, Colorado. American Journal of Physical Anthropology Supplement, 30, 205.

    Google Scholar 

  • LeBlanc, S. A. (1999). Prehistoric warfare in the American southwest. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liénard, P., & Boyer, P. (2006). Whence collective rituals? A cultural selection model of ritualized behavior. American Anthropologist, 108(4), 814–827.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Logan, M. H., & Qirko, H. N. (1996). An evolutionary perspective on maladaptive traits and cultural conformity. American Journal of Human Biology, 8, 615–629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • López Austin, A. (1980). The human body and ideology: Concepts of the ancient Nahuas. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucero, L. J., & Gibbs, S. A. (2007). The creation and sacrifice of witches in classic Maya society. In V. Tiesler & A. Cucina (Eds.), New perspectives on human sacrifice and ritual body treatments in ancient Maya society (pp. 45–73). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lumholtz, C. (1900). Symbolism of the Huichol. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, III. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maher, L. A., Stock, J. T., Finney, S., Heywood, J. J. N., Miracle, P. T., & Banning, E. B. (2011). A unique human-fox burial from a pre-Natufian cemetery in the Levant (Jordan). PLoS One, 6(1), e15815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L. (1997). Violence against women in the La Plata River Valley (A.D. 1000–1300). In D. L. Martin & D. W. Frayer (Eds.), Troubled times: Violence and warfare in the past (pp. 45–75). Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L., Harrod, R. P., & Fields, M. (2010). Beaten down and worked to the bone: Bioarchaeological investigations of women and violence in the ancient Southwest. Landscapes of Violence 1(1), Article 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L., Harrod, R. P., & Pérez, V. R. (2012). Introduction: Bioarchaeology and the study of violence. In D. L. Martin, R. P. Harrod, & V. R. Pérez (Eds.), The bioarchaeology of violence (pp. 1–10). Gainesville: University of Florida Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L., & Osterholtz, A. J. (2012). A bioarchaeology of captivity, slavery, bondage, and torture. New directions in bioarchaeology, special forum. The SAA Archaeological Record, 12(3), 32–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maschner, H. D. G. (1997). The evolution of northwest coast warfare. In D. L. Martin & D. W. Frayer (Eds.), Troubled times: Violence and warfare in the past (pp. 267–302). Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meiklejohn, C., Agelarakis, A., Akkermans, P. A., Smith, P. E. L., & Solecki, R. (1992). Artificial cranial deformation in the proto-Neolithic and Neolithic near east and its possible origin: Evidence from four sites. Paléorient, 18(2), 83–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. (2000). Tsimshian culture: A light through the ages. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milner, G. R., & Larsen, C. S. (1991). Teeth as artifacts of human behavior: Intentional mutilation and accidental modification. In M. A. Kelley & C. S. Larsen (Eds.), Advances in dental anthropology (pp. 357–378). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Negrín, J. (1975). The Huichol creation of the world. Sacramento: E. B. Crocker Art Gallery.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, B. A. (1997). Chronology and stratigraphy at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology, 24, 85–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, B. A., Darling, J. A., & Kice, D. A. (1992). Mortuary practices and the social order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity, 3(4), 298–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, G. K. (1942). Types of artificial cranial deformation in the Eastern United States. American Antiquity, 7(3), 306–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nickens, P. R. (1975). Prehistoric cannibalism in the Mancos Canyon, Southwestern Colorado. Kiva, 40(4), 283–293.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogilvie, M. D., & Hilton, C. E. (2000). Ritualized violence in the prehistoric American southwest. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 10, 27–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osterholtz, A. J. (2012). The social role of hobbling and torture: Violence in the prehistoric Southwest. International Journal of Paleopathology, 2(2–3), 148–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, M. P. (1993). The powerful dead: Relationships between the living and the dead. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 3, 203–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pérez, V. R. (2002). La Quemada tool induced bone alterations: Cutmark differences between human and animal bone. Archaeology Southwest, 16(1), 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez, V. R. (2012a). The politicization of the dead: Violence as performance, politics as usual. In D. L. Martin, R. P. Harrod, & V. R. Pérez (Eds.), The bioarchaeology of violence. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez, V. R. (2012b). The taphonomy of violence: Recognizing variation in disarticulated skeletal assemblages. International Journal of Paleopathology, 2(2–3), 156–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez, V. R., Martin, D. L., & Nelson, B. A. (2000). Variations in patterns of bone modification at La Quemada. American Journal of Physical Anthropology Supplemental, 30, 248–249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, T. R., White, T. D., & Toth, N. P. (2000). Brief communications: Cutmarks on a plio-­pleistocene hominid from Sterkfontein, South Africa. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 111, 579–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porr, M., & Alt, K. W. (2006). The burial of Bad Dürrenberg, Central Germany: Osteopathology and osteoarchaeology of a Late Mesolithic shaman’s grave. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 15(5), 395–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quigley, C. (1996). The corpse: A history. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rives, J. (1995). Human sacrifice among pagans and Christians. Journal of Roman Studies, 85, 65–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez, J. B. (1975). Tablas. Los Angeles: Ankrum Gallery.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, G. R., & Turner, C. G., II. (1988). Dental anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 17, 99–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sofaer, J. R. (2006). The body as material culture: A theoretical osteoarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, J. R., & Fowler, A. P. (1996). Looking beyond Chaco in the San Juan basin and its peripheries. In M. A. Adler (Ed.), The prehistoric Pueblo world, A. D. 1150–1350 (pp. 114–130). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, T. D. (1937). Different types of cranial deformity in the Pueblo area. American Anthropologist, 39(1), 169–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiesler, V. (2007). Funerary and nonfunerary? New references in identifying ancient Maya sacrificial and postsacrificial behaviors from human assemblages. In V. Tiesler & A. Cucina (Eds.), New perspectives on human sacrifice and ritual body treatments in ancient Maya society (pp. 14–45). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tiesler, V. (2012). Studying cranial vault modifications in ancient Mesoamerica. Journal of Anthropological Sciences, 90, 1–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiesler, V., & Cucina, A. (2007). New perspectives on human sacrifice and ritual body treatments in ancient Maya society. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Torres-Rouff, C. (2002). Cranial vault modification and ethnicity in middle horizon San Pedro de Atacama, North Chile. Current Anthropology, 43, 163–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trinkaus, E. (1982). Artificial cranial deformation in the Shanidar 1 and 5 Neanderthals. Current Anthropology, 23, 198–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trombold, C. D. (1985). A summary of the archaeology of the La Quemada region. In M. S. Foster & P. C. Weigand (Eds.), The archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica (pp. 327–352). Boulder: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tung, T. A. (2007). Trauma and violence in the Wari empire of the Peruvian Andes: Warfare, raids, and ritual fights. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 133, 941–956.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, C. G., II. (1993). Cannibalism in Chaco Canyon: The charnel pit excavated in 1926 at small house ruin by Frank H.H. Roberts, Jr. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 91, 421–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, C. G., II, & Turner, J. A. (1999). Man corn: Cannibalism and violence in the prehistoric American southwest. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weyl, N. (1968). Some possible genetic implications of Carthaginian child sacrifice. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 12(1), 69–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, T. D. (1992). Prehistoric cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR-2346. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox, D. R., & Haas, J. (1994). The scream of the butterfly: Competition and conflict in the prehistoric southwest. In G. J. Gumerman (Ed.), Themes in southwest prehistory (pp. 211–238). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, A. S., Taylor, T., Ceruti, M. C., Chavez, J. A., Reinhard, J., Grimes, V., et al. (2007). Stable isotope and DNA evidence for ritual sequences in Inca child sacrifice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(42), 16456–16461.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zingg, R. M. (1977). The Huichols: Primitive artists. Report of the Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pfeiffer expedition for Huichol ethnography. Millwood: Kraus. (Original work published 1938)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

    Debra L. Martin & Ryan P. Harrod

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Ventura R. Pérez

Authors
  1. Debra L. Martin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ryan P. Harrod
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ventura R. Pérez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Martin, D.L., Harrod, R.P., Pérez, V.R. (2013). Body as Material Culture. In: Bioarchaeology. Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6378-8_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation