Changing archaeological paradigms and the interpretation of cemeteries

This article reviews and discusses different schools of archaeological thought and their approaches to the study of burials and cemeteries. The paper begins with discussion of traditional archaeology with its emphasis on investigating ethnic issues and looking for markers of ethnic affiliation and indicators of the wealth/social status of the deceased. Then, the contribution to the study of cemeteries made by processual archaeology with its interest in generalizations and relationships between material remains of mortuary practices and their social correlates is examined. Finally, the impact of post-processual archaeology with its focus on studying the symbolic meaning of mortuary evidence and the attention paid to the role played in funerary rituals by ideology is presented. It is stressed that the way archaeologists study cemeteries and the type of research questions they ask directly depends on the school of archaeological thought to which they belong. It is also proposed that all three of the main theoretical paradigms in contemporary archaeology are not necessarily contradictory but can be complimentary in revealing various aspects of mortuary evidence and possibilities of its interpretation.