Paper long abstract:

Archaeological studies of kinship have been scarce in recent scholarship and social archaeological studies have focused on household, gender, age and individuality often without considering the mechanisms through which these social identities are constructed. This is at least in part due to the uncomfortable relationship between archaeological data and anthropological terminology. This Introductory paper will outline the history of this relationship. Using an examples from contemporary and early medieval societies it will outline ways that archaeological approaches can see the construction of family identities, and transformations in those identities, in a funerary context.