This book investigates individual and group responses to death and the problems that death can create in a society. Several hypotheses regarding grief and mourning, as well as their variation with other societal variables, are supported with cross-cultural tests.

This book investigates individual and group responses to death and the problems that death can create in a society. Several hypotheses regarding grief and mourning, as well as their variation with other societal variables, are supported with cross-cultural tests.

This book investigates individual and group responses to death and the problems that death can create in a society. Several hypotheses regarding grief and mourning, as well as their variation with other societal variables, are supported with cross-cultural tests.

This survey chapter discusses the use of ash and other fire-generated materials in Ancestral Pueblo settlements in the northern Rio Grande region. The author begins by surveying ethnographic reports of ash use among indigenous groups in the Southwest and Great Basin regions to understand the potential reasons for ash use in prehistoric contexts beyond just cooking. He then turns to archaeological data to explore the extensive use of fire, ash, and other pyrotechnic products across indigenous communities in the region, focusing on excavated architectural and mortuary contexts from the northern Rio Grande, especially the Taos and Picuris areas. The author argues that these fire-related actions and products show that ash plays two major roles -- it is used as a part of major transition ceremonies and as an instrument for healing. The author concludes that these ethnographic observations inform and illuminate archaeological contexts that contain ash, charcoal, and fire.

A literature review of burial customs and their related assumptions and data orientations is presented. A cross-cultural study suggests there are associations between measures of mortuary ritual variety and societal structural complexity.

Using 57 cultures from the Human Relations Area Files database, this paper examines the function and effectiveness of the belief of punitive ancestors in small-scale societies. The authors found that belief in dangerous ancestral entities is widespread and common and that harm is preventable through ritualized mortuary practices. The authors concluded that the fear of ancestral spirits did not promote social cooperation or inhibit self-interest behavior, contrary to the supernatural punishment hypothesis.

This article investigates a broad hypothesis that cultural traits diversify with sociocultural development. Results suggest that sociocultual development is associated with certain aspects of aesthetic and ritual culture, and that cultural elaboration may be correlated with some sexual norms and tendency toward cannibalism, human sacrifice, and slavery.

In order to evaluate an adaptive justification for restriction of ritualized physical contact, the authors test association between three manifestations of physical interaction and prevalence of pathogens cross-culturally. Their expectation, supported by two of the three tested hypotheses, is that higher pathogen prevalence will lead to customs of restricted physical contact. Both cultural and biological evolution are suggested to be influential in selecting for physically intimate behaviors.

This study examines the relationship between existence of status hierarchies and the level of expense on burials. The aim is to assess the archaeological assumption that more expenditure on burials reflects elite statuses in society. Author concludes that competition is a more direct predictor of burial type than status hierarchy. Implications for archaeology are discussed.

This study examines the relationship between existence of status hierarchies and the level of expense on burials. The aim is to assess the archaeological assumption that more expenditure on burials reflects elite statuses in society. Author concludes that competition is a more direct predictor of burial type than status hierarchy. Implications for archaeology are discussed.