NEGOTIATING EQUALITY THROUGH RITUAL - A CONSIDERATION OF LATE NATUFIAN AND PREPOTTERY NEOLITHIC-A PERIOD MORTUARY PRACTICES

Mortuary rituals, specifically secondary mortuary practices with the s ocially sanctioned removal of all or some parts of the deceased, are a powerful means of social integration during periods of social, econom ic, or environmental change. Integrating ethnographic data on the soci al impact of secondary mortuary ceremonies with archaeological evidenc e from the Late Natufian and Prepottery Neolithic A periods of the sou th-central Levant, this study explores how the development and mainten ance of intentional secondary mortuary rituals, such as with the remov al and reburial of skulls, served as powerful communal acts that symbo lically and physically Linked communities and limited the perception o r reality of social differentiation. Continuity within, and meanings b ehind, secondary mortuary practices during the late Pleistocene and ea rly Holocene prompts the researcher to reevaluate previous interpretat ions of the relationship(s) among the appearance of formalized social inequality, food production, and the definition of personal relations within Levantine Neolithic communities. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.