Normative, Atypical or Deviant? : Interpreting Prehistoric and Protohistoric Child Burial Practices

Murphy, Eileen (EDT); Roy, Mélie Le (EDT)

ISBN 10: 1803275111 / ISBN 13: 9781803275116

Published by Archaeopress, 2023

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 46502042-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Normative, Atypical or Deviant? : Interpreting Prehistoric and Protohistoric Child Burial Practices
• Publisher: Archaeopress
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1803275111
• ISBN 13: 9781803275116
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Normative, Atypical or Deviant? Interpreting Prehistoric and Protohistoric Child Burial Practices, the tenth volume in the SSCIP monograph series, explores the response of the living when dealing with the death of a child. This response is strongly connected to belief systems and concern for the fate of the deceased in the afterlife. The funerary rituals for each culture generally follow a prescribed format that will both satisfy the needs of the dead and ensure there are no negative consequences for the living. But how do we interpret burials that do not adhere to the recognised formula for their society? Can we find evidence that such differences involved positive or, indeed, negative emotions? Should atypical rites for children actually be considered normal since they are typical for their age cohort, differing only from those of adults, and perhaps simply reflect adult-centric interpretations of the past? The papers within the volume discuss these issues by focusing on juvenile burial practices in Europe and the Near East during recent prehistory and protohistory. The interpretation of normative, atypical or deviant is interrogated based on the context of the burials and the intentionality of the practice.

About the Author

Eileen Murphy is Professor of Archaeology in the School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her research focuses on human skeletal populations from prehistoric Russia and all periods in Ireland. She is particularly interested in the use of approaches from bioarchaeology and funerary archaeology to help further understanding of the lives and experiences of people in the past. She has published widely and is the co-editor of Children, Death and Burial: Archaeological Discourses (2017; with Mélie Le Roy) and Across the Generations: The Old and the Young in Past Societies (2018; with Grete Lillehammer). She is the founding and longstanding editor of the international journal, Childhood in the Past. Mélie Le Roy is a Lecturer in Biological Anthropology at Bournemouth University, UK. Her research centres on the social consideration of children in an archaeological context to provide insights into past social organisation. She co-edited the book Children, Death and Burial: Archaeological Discourses (2017; with Eileen Murphy) and was guest co-editor of a volume of the journal Childhood in the Past entitled Children at Work (2019; with Caroline Polet).|Eileen Murphy is Professor of Archaeology in the School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her research focuses on human skeletal populations from prehistoric Russia and all periods in Ireland. She is particularly interested in the use of approaches from bioarchaeology and funerary archaeology to help further understanding of the lives and experiences of people in the past. She has published widely and is the co-editor of Children, Death and Burial: Archaeological Discourses (2017; with Mélie Le Roy) and Across the Generations: The Old and the Young in Past Societies (2018; with Grete Lillehammer). She is the founding and longstanding editor of the international journal, Childhood in the Past.|Mélie Le Roy is a Lecturer in Biological Anthropology at Bournemouth University, UK. Her research centres on the social consideration of children in an archaeological context to provide insights into past social organisation. She co-edited the book Children, Death and Burial: Archaeological Discourses (2017; with Eileen Murphy) and was guest co-editor of a volume of the journal Childhood in the Past entitled Children at Work (2019; with Caroline Polet).