Body as Material Culture

Abstract

The human body is more than the bone, tissue, and blood that give it its corporeal fea-tures. It is the ultimate symbol of social interactions and cultural ideology and as such is laden with meaning. It is the physical vehicle that contains human consciousness and moves people through their world, and it is what people leave behind after they die. The body is examined here in terms of how it is utilized to symbolize the worldview of the people within a particular culture. It is critical to view the body in ways beyond the simple categories of age, sex, stature, and presence or absence of nutritional defi ciencies, disease, and trauma. Moving beyond this traditional defi nition motivates researchers to consider the life history of the individual. It is critical for researchers to remember that these individuals assumed multiple identities throughout their lifetime and that they lived in dynamic and relational social environments that continually infl uenced their body. The body must been seen as the study of the interrelatedness of material culture and society. However, more than that, it must be understood in terms of how it coexists and changes in relation to the shared methodological systems and socioeconomic organiza-tion of the society it operates in. Sofaer (2006) argues that bioarchaeology must struggle against the structural binary that is perceived to exist between osteology (science) and identity or anthropological archaeology (humanism). Bioarchaeologists tend to either study the bones as clinical specimens or to ask questions about human adaptation and culture that can be answered with empirical data derived from the skeleton. On the one hand, they study the manner by which different diseases and skeletal markers appear on specifi c elements, and they see each indicator as an isolated phenomenon. On the other hand, they sometimes start by asking questions about the various characteristics of the society. These approaches are a good start but they will provide an incomplete picture of the lived experience of the individual they are not integrated with theory. It is only through the examination of cultural constructions that it is possible to tease out the different meanings the body can take on through its materiality and refl ection of societal norms. These societal norms are part of the formation of the body, in life and death, as a site of constant negotiation. Because it is subject to specifi c cultural conditions starting even before birth, the body's " objective " quali-ties cannot be understood without considering this context. The body is a model which can stand for any kind of bound system (Douglas 1966/ 1992 :115). Social theorists and cultural anthropologists have long understood the social and cultural signifi cance of the human body. It is a repository for each individual's col-lection of lived experiences. Bodies are the ultimate form of material culture in that they are the material objects through which culture and biology are synthesized into a holistic human experience. As such, bodies consist of some of the most valuable sources of information for reconstructing past lifeways and behaviors. Archaeology and specifi cally bioarchaeology has only recently come to see the importance of viewing the body in terms of material culture. The concepts of ritual and ritualized behavior are explored here. These concepts are extremely important to understanding and interpreting the " bounded system " that is expressed on the body. Ritual is a specifi c way of producing a pattern of behavior that is centered on inelasticity in performance and is replicated in cultur-ally sanctioned ways with specifi c themes that illicit particular feelings of compul-sion (Liénard and Boyer 2006). The themes surrounding ritualized behavior can include everything from birth rights to fraternal bonding within warrior societies. These rituals can often leave evidence on the skeleton in terms of bone modifi cation or alterations to its size and shape. Complex relationships between body practices and practices of representation are explored through several types of modifi cation in the following sections. 9.1.1 Body Modifi cation and Ornamentation