Abstract
At Arroyo Hondo, villagers literally lived with the dead. Like other Ancestral Puebloan settlements, the dead were interspersed within village spaces rather than interred in cemetery areas separated from the living. Placing the dead among the living may have expressed the unity of life in fourteenth century Tewa cosmology. However, these spatial relationships also raise questions about how the dead were entangled in on-going relationships with the living. In Tewa cosmology, life is defined by transitions and transformations that distinguish life stages from an individual’s presence or being-in-the-world. Drawing on ethnographic homologies, I discuss how the treatment of bodies situated once living individuals as beings and as persons. I suggest that death transformed the now lifeless corpse into a vibrant object that maintained relationships with the living as xayeh.
It is that at the beginning and at the end of life – when it matters most – the Tewa emphasize the solidarity of the whole society rather than the dual organization. …at the beginning of life there is a single path for all Tewa. At water giving it divides into two parallel paths and continues in that way until the end of life. At death the paths rejoin again and become one….
Ortiz (1969: 56–57).
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Notes
- 1.
My earlier analysis focused on the relationship of age to ceremonial status in Arroyo Hondo’s interments. I argued that at death, Arroyo Hondo villagers were accorded treatment commensurate with their status in life. Treatment of the body and accompanying grave goods reflected distinctions among Ochu, Seht t’a, Towa’e and Patowa. Its’ now clear that the notion of ascribed status makes no sense in this context. My forced interpretation illustrates Das’s caution that concepts must lead to a place where they are at home and make sense (2020: 330–331).
- 2.
- 3.
12-18-8-VII-1 (8–9 months).
- 4.
12-18-8-4N-9 (16 months).
- 5.
12-18-8-4S-8 (10–11 months).
- 6.
12-G-B110-3 (16–18 months) and 12-G-B110-4 (3 months).
- 7.
12-G-B110-2 (4–5 years).
- 8.
12-C-9-1-1 (16–18 months).
- 9.
12-G-2-4-10 (2 years).
- 10.
12-G-ST7-2-3 (2 years).
- 11.
12-G-D8-4-3 (10–11 months).
- 12.
12-G-ST-7-2-10 (1 month).
- 13.
12-14-5-8-1 (6 months).
- 14.
12-18-6-3S-2.
- 15.
12-11-3A-2-2.
- 16.
A nine year-old interred with a fire dog and large corrugated sherd (12-G-2-3-37), a thirteen year old (12-G-2-3-84) interred with 2 manos and 2 other stones, and a thirteen year old (12-20-6-5-1) interred with a red pained gourd fragment and some other animal/bird bones.
- 17.
This comparison includes only primary interments associated with Component I. Of these 108 individuals, 90 were primary interments. The bodies of 14 individuals were interred in typical normative graves, and 4 individuals were represented by commingled remains that had been redeposited prehistorically. Ortman’s analysis of these interments yielded comparable results (2012: 101). However, his analysis included individuals that were either not interred in graves or were associated with the Component II reoccupation of the village.
- 18.
12-G-B110-4-3 and 12-K-12-IV-1 E (Lang & Harris, 1984: 279).
- 19.
12-G-B110-2-5 and 12-K-3-IV-1-5 J (Lang & Harris, 1984: 278).
- 20.
This area was originally designated as Room 12-16-29 but was later identifies as a small outdoor niche in Plaza C that had not been walled off to form a room.
- 21.
12-16-29-5-1.
- 22.
12-16-29-2-9.
- 23.
Its unclear if her body was wrapped in other blankets.
- 24.
12-16-36-5-2.
- 25.
12-16-36-4-1.
- 26.
12-19-1-V-1.
- 27.
12-11-8-2-13.
- 28.
12-18-8-VI-1.
- 29.
12-20-6-5-1 (possibly a female).
- 30.
12-G-2-4-14 (male, age mid 30s–40s).
- 31.
12-G-6; 12-G-2-3-21-1; 12-C-A-4-2; 12-16-36-5-2; 12-G-1C-2-2; 12-H-1-0-1.
- 32.
12-16-38-6, 12-16-29-2; 12-21-3-12-2; 12-21-5-1-3; 12-14-5-8-1.
- 33.
12-G-2-4-14; 12-G-2-3-1.
- 34.
12-C-A-39-2; 12-G-D8-4-1.
- 35.
12-K-3-III-A #2; 12-K-3-III-A #1.
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Palkovich, A.M. (2024). Living with the Dead. In: Bodies, Ontology, and Bioarchaeology. Bioarchaeology and Social Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56023-1_5
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