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Accepted Paper:

'Meaningful' and 'meaningless' deposition: interpreting the post-mortem treatment of human and animal bodies  
Ivana Zivaljevic (Newcastle University)

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the concepts of 'meaningful' and 'meaningless' deposition of human and animal remains in archaeological interpretation, as an echo of the Modernist narrative on the 'Nature-Culture' dichotomy. The case-study I chose is the Danube Gorges of the Balkans.

Paper long abstract:

Human and animal remains are commonly found on archaeological sites. In the Mesolithic-Neolithic Danube Gorges of the Balkans, complete, fragmented or disarticulated human and animal bodies were found in many different contexts associated with dwellings, hearths and pits. There has been an apparent tendency in archaeological literature to interpret all contexts with human remains as 'burials', while animal remains have been referred to as 'grave goods' or 'offerings'; evidence of 'food consumption' and 'rubbish pits'. Given that the strict separation of humankind from nature is developed within European Modernist thought and not universally shared, I argue that we need to move beyond arbitrary concepts of 'meaningful' and 'meaningless' material culture when studying human and animal remains. In different cultural contexts, the nature-culture dichotomy may be less pronounced or even non-existent, while the category of 'human' or 'person' may extend to include other living and non-living things. I would like to query the prevalent notion that only human bodies posses agency, and therefore their post-mortem treatment is always 'meaningful' and 'structured' (i.e. 'burial'), while animal bodies belong to the sphere of 'everyday' economy. The question of interpretation of human and animal remains must be answered contextually, by comparing the context of deposition and the post-mortem treatment. Addressing this topic from a body-focused perspective and incorporating 'non-Western' perspectives of the body and person may shed more light on the meanings ascribed to human and animal bodies in the prehistoric past, and the fluidity of boundaries between human and non-human beings.

Panel S40b
General papers - Identities
  Session 1