Dr. Davidson
Course Description and Objectives:
The seminar’s goal is to provide a solid grounding in the anthropological literature of Mortuary studies; that is, data derived from a study of the Death Experience. In addition to archaeological data, a strong emphasis will be placed on the theoretical underpinnings of mortuary data, drawn from cultural anthropology and ethnography.
Along with more theoretical papers, specific case studies will be used to address a variety of topics and issues, such as Social Organization and Social Structure, Spirituality and Religion, Skeletal Biology (e.g., Paleodemography, Paleopathology, and other issues of Bioarchaeology), Gender Issues, The Ethics of using Human Remains, and Post-Processual Critiques of Mortuary Archaeology. The time range that we will cover in the course will span from the Neolithic to the early 20th century, and numerous cultures from all parts of the globe will be our subject matter.