Description
Book SynopsisThis data-rich monograph provides new and stimulating perspectives on the Hohokam people and their mortuary practices. It breaks new ground by using the knowledge of descendent peoples to generate archaeologically testable hypotheses; demonstrating the need for mortuary analyses conducted at a regional scale; and synthesizing the interaction of beliefs, ideology, social organization, and ecology in determining Hohokam mortuary practices. Various chapters discuss body treatment, mortuary furniture and goods, mortuary architecture, and cemeteries. Numerous figures help document the variability of Hohokam practices.
Sending the Spirits Home synthesizes data from various excavations, applied archaeology, and cultural resource management projects. This study combines archaeological and ethnographic sources and provides tools for the adoption of standardized protocols needed to facilitate cross-project comparisons on which future regional syntheses can be based.
Trade Review“The coding protocols are a major contribution to the study of Hohokam mortuary patterns, the compilation of the data is impressive and informative, the conclusions are interesting—and some even surprising.”—Todd W. Bostwick, PhD, Director of Archaeology, Verde Valley Archaeology Center, Camp Verde, Arizona “The book stands alone as the first detailed summary and analysis of Hohokam mortuary practice. It brings together over three decades of work and greatly advances our understanding of the Hohokam, with useful analyses that get well beyond the old debates.”
—Randall H. McGuire, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, SUNY Binghamton “It is well worth the effort to follow Rice as he constructs and applies an encompassing model of factors deemed essential for understanding Hohokam mortuary programs.... Professionals and students with interests in Hohokam or Southwest studies will unquestionably benefit from this book.”—
American Antiquity “This terrific volume presents a descriptive, interpretive, and synthetic presentation of Hohokam mortuary archaeology that is impressive in its breadth and scope…. [and] provides a model for what mortuary archaeology can aspire to in the Southwest and beyond.”—
Journal of Anthropological Research
