Burial Histories, Bodies, and Pots: Mortuary Practices in the Southeastern Rainforests of the Andes during the 1st Millennium a.d. (El Cadillal, Argentina)

Abstract

Through the control of social memory and the dead, household members in Argentinian Andeanearly Formative villages often used primary and secondary mortuary practices to negotiate powerand identity among the living. In this paper, we explore the material evidence obtained in thelarge-scale salvage excavations of El Cadillal, Argentina, where 51 burials were recovered fromthree burial sites. Between A.D. 0 and 900, people living in the southeastern rainforests placeddeceased household members in ceramic urns and, less frequently, inside of rock enclosures andpits surrounded by a range of grave offerings. Drawing upon this case study, we attempt todisentangle the complex web of relationships between the dead, the living, and the El Cadillalcommunity in order to assess how social memories were crafted through primary and secondarymortuary events and how the repetition of mortuary rituals created a social landscape andmemories of the dead.