Thesis
Coast Salish mortuary practices: an exploration of social representation in burial ritual
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2012
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102194
Abstract
This study is an exploration of social practice, specifically of status and gender representation, among the Coast Salish of British Columbia as expressed in 237 burials spanning the past 5000 years. To examine these practices, burial treatments such as the inclusion of grave goods and positioning for each burial was recorded, and this data was examined to illuminate its structure using Fisher's Exact tests and a Correspondence Analysis. This thesis explores burial treatments through time to better understand Coast Salish society and death ritual. It is expected that status, age, gender and other social practices impact one another in ways that have not been accounted for in prior studies, and that these social expressions are more complex than has been posited. The first element of this study considers Coast Salish burials through a series of bivariate analyses focusing on time, age and sex. It is assumed that beginning with the Marpole period (ca 2500 years BP) that ascribed status systems were present, which should appear in the burial record as both young and old individuals having elaborate grave goods and treatments. Although there are instances of child burials with some representations of wealth, overall child burials are v unadorned in comparison to adult burials. Additionally, certain burial aspects such as land hunting instruments or decorative goods appear gendered. These results indicate that status and gender were both more complex social practices than has been previously recognized. The second element of this study considers the collected burial attributes together in a single multivariate analysis. In this statistical approach, it appears that the bivariate relationships hold true, and that the interplay of gender, status and other social norms structured Coast Salish burial practices throughout the last four millennia.
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Details
- Title
- Coast Salish mortuary practices
- Creators
- Erin Rochelle Mcilraith
- Contributors
- Colin Grier (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525084901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis