On Mortuary Analysis—with Special Reference to the Saxe-Binford Research Program

Abstract

In the debate that has developed over the theoretical program of mortuary analysis presented by Saxe (1970) and Binford (1971) over 20 years ago, great stress has been laid on limitations to their goal of identifying social factors underlying differences in the material treatment of the dead. Critics often raise objection to the search for features of social organization in the archaeological manifestations of ritually dominated practices (Hodder 1982; Pearson 1982; Shanks and Tilley 1982). Ritual is portrayed as obeying different rules, and hence demanding separate lines of argument. Lost sight of is the long-acknowledged effect that the scale of social complexity has on the range and complexity of ritual (Durkheim 1915). The problem is not with the principle, but with the means for secure and credible articulation of material manifestations of ritual to features of social organization.