curet & oliver 1998

Society for American Archaeology

Mortuary Practices, Social Development, and Ideology in Precolumbian Puerto RicoAuthor(s): L. Antonio Curet and Jose R. OliverSource: Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Sep., 1998), pp. 217-239Published by: Society for American ArchaeologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/971729Accessed: 10/02/2010 08:39

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Mortuarv practices rank among the best sources of (Irchaeological data from which to infer social organization, ideology, religious beliefs, and to a certain extent, the political structure of past societies. This essay (1) reviews mortuary practices among prehistoric groups of Puerto Rico, (2) proposes a possible sequence of changes through time, and (3) presents explanations that account for the obserled changes. Aside from evident correlation with broad cultural developments, changes in sttortuarv practicez CClSl be understood best in the cosltext of parallel developments in social, political, and economic com- plexitv. We arglSte that in Plterto Rico a shift in mortuary practices from burying dead relatives in centralized cemeteries to the disposition of the dead in domestic contexts was strongly related to a shift from largely kin-based societies to the ranked organizatiosl of cacicazgos (chiefdoms). Particularlv, we conclude that the shift in social organization from emphasis on extended descent groups that acted as corporate groups to nuclear households reflects a strategy utilized by the emerging elite to dismantle and reorient previous comselunal institutions. This shift was accomplished through the monopolization, by the estlergislg elite, of the tenets surrounding the cult of the ancestors to create a legitimizing ideology.

Las pra'cticas funerarias se encuentran entre los recursos ma's productivos utilizados por los arqueologos para inferir formas de organizaciosl social, religiosa, e ideologica e incluso la estructura polftica de las sociedades prehistoricas. Este ensayo (1) revisa la evidencia de las practicas mortuorias de las sociedades precolombinas de Puerto Rico, (2) establece una posi- ble secuencia de cambios a trave's del tiempo y (3) propone una hipotesis que explica dichos cambios. Adema's de la evidente correlacion entre los cclsnbios en pra'cticas funerarias y las transformaciones culturales en general, dichos cambios deben examinarse en coordinacion con los desarrollos paralelos de complejizacion a nivel social, polftico v economico. En este tra- bajo se a rgum enta q ue, en Puerto Rico, el cambio en p ra'cticas fun era rias de enterrar a los pa rien tes en cem en terios cen - tralizadoz a disponer de ellos dentro del contexto dome'stico esta' fntimamente relacionado a la transformacio'n de sociedades esencials7leslte bazadan en la organizacion de parentesco a sociedades complejas cacicales. Particularsnente, concluimos que el canlbio de uncl organizacion social basada en los grupos de descendencia extendidos a una basada en el grupo dome'stico nuclear s-efleja Icl ests-ategia utilizada por la elite emergente para desmantelar y reorientar las instituciones comunales. Sugerimos que esto se llelwo a cabo a trave's del snonolsolio de las creencias relacionadas al culto de los antepasados para crear una ideologicl que legitimice el poder cacical, por parte de la elite emergente.

L. Antonio Curet * University of Colorado at Denver, Department of Anthropology, Campus Box 103, P.O. Box 173363, Denver, CO 80217-3364. Jose R. Oliver * Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WClH OPY, United Kingdom.

Latin American Antiquity, 9(3), 1998, pp. 217-239. Copyright (C) by the Society for American Archaeology

A rchaeological burial practices offer an important class of evidence for inferring prehistoric social organization. Since the

seminal works of Saxe (1970) and Binford (1971), burial information has been used in a wide variety of contexts and in different ways. The most popular kind of burial analysis has consisted of determining the social status and position of individuals by assuming that their social personae and social identities are somehow reflected in specific funerary arrangements

(Binford 1971; Saxe 1970). Many researchers have used this approach to determine if the society under study was an egalitarian society, a stratified society, or a societal organization falling somewhere along this continuum.

Another perspective focuses not so much on the social status or position of individuals but rather on their membership in different structural parts or components of the social system. Instead of concentrating on individual burials, the latter perspective places emphasis on burial practices as

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MORTUARY PRACTICES, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, AND IDEOLOGY IN PRECOLUMBIAN PUERTO RICO

L. Antonio Curet and Jose R. Oliver

218 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 9, No.3, 1998

part of the cultural whole. In this study, the analysis of mortuary data from Puerto Rico follows the latter approach; it focuses on the nature of the extinct social structure of the group.

Several archaeological projects conducted in eastern Puerto Rico have systematically uncovered information about prehistoric burials and funerary practices. Although the data provided by each project are not entirely comparable, there is sufficient information to allow a preliminary mortuary analysis and to propose hypotheses for future testing. The results of the foregoing diachronic analysis support the proposition that the change from interments in centralized burial grounds to the placement of graves in domestic contexts coincides with the development of chiefdoms. This mortuary shift also indicates changes in the nature of the social organization and signals new modes of redistribution of goods and political control of resources. Recent studies by Siegel (1989, 1991, 1992, 1996) and Oliver (1992a, 1992c, 1998) have discussed such phenomena by emphasizing the relationship between the cosmological-ideological realm, on the one hand, and the political dimension on the other. This study builds upon these works by adding the dimensions of a more direct consideration of social and economic organization to the interpretation of burial practices.

The Institutionalization of Social Inequality: Egalitarianism to Social Complexity

The shift from egalitarian to stratified or complex societies seems to have been a slow process full of contradictions that required exceptional political abilities from emerging elites (e.g., Curet 1996). While communal or egalitarian societies might include stratification and inequality based on achieved factors (Lee 1990; McGuire and Saitta 1996; Saitta 1997), these groups tend to be conservative and generate reactionary responses to each attempt to institutionalize such social differentiation (Bender 1990; Lee 1990; Upham 1990). Thus, even though communal societies contain the germ of social differentiation necessary for the development of stratified societies, emerging elites have to dismantle or reorient the old societal forms based on communality to establish and maintain a new social order based on inherited social positions. Any model of the

development of social complexity, therefore, has to consider these previous egalitarian conditions and institutions in order to have some explanatory power (what Friedman and Rowlands [1977] have called epigenetic models). Specifically, they have to explain how (1) informal inequality already present in egalitarian societies is institutionalized (Price and Feinman 1995:4), and (2) how previous egalitarian political and economic institutions were either dismantled or reoriented to minimize the importance of communality. For this reason, the following discussion begins by presenting aspects of communality and inequality in egalitarian societies, particularly by using a corporate-based, in contrast to network-based, political economy as a possible route to the con- solidation of institutionalized social stratification (Blanton et al. 1996; Feinman 1995).

Egalitarian or communal societies have usu- ally been defined as social organizations in which the majority of the people have, or are guaran- teed, access to resources, achieved status, or surplus labor (Lee 1990; Saitta 1997, Saitta and Keene 1990). This definition, however, does not completely preclude inequality, hierarchy, or social stratification in those societies. In fact, many researchers have recently stressed the presence of differential status in certain "egalitarian" or tribal societies (Lee 1990; McGuire and Saitta 1996; Price and Feinman 1995; Saitta 1997; Saitta and Keene 1990). The main difference, though, is that inequality and social stratification in egalitarian societies ten'd to be based on achieved or, at most, temporary status, while they are institutionalized or formalized (i.e., inherited and socially reproduced) in complex societies such as chiefdoms and states (Price and Feinman 1995; Saitta 1997; Saitta and Keene 1990).

Because of their conservatism, communal societies normally have several social mechanisms to emphasize the continuity of the community. At the same time, individuality is downplayed to avoid or resist formalization of the already present social inequalities (Bender 1990; Lee 1990). One way of stressing the communal aspects of society is by defining kin groups as the basic unit of social organization. In many instances these groups tend to act, also, as corporate groups that, at least in theory, have ownership and control over economic, political, social, and

Maria PatriciaHighlight



Curet and Oliver] MORTUARY PRACTICES IN PRECOLUMBIAN PUERTO RICO 219

symbolic resources. Within this context, individuals tend to emphasize their membership in one of these groups more than their personal status, or social persona, in order to have access to these resources.

In these circumstances, emerging elites have to create the conditions to acquire, institutionalize, and maintain power. Anderson (1994:17-18) has recently suggested that emerging elites in primary or pristine chiefdoms tend to choose legitimizing ideologies over secular force to arrive at and maintain their positions of institutionalized (i.e., inherited) authority. Ideological mechanisms are preferred even though they take time to develop because, once in place, they can provide stability and strong support for chiefly authority. While positions of power can be attained rather quickly through coercive force, such measures tend to be ineffective and unstable because of the time and energy that must be spent keeping the population under control and extracting surpluses from it. Thus, legitimizing ideologies are more efficient and effective ways to institutionalize the inequality already present in previously egalitarian societies.

Elite legitimizing ideologies can be estab- lished through the use and control of religious structures and symbols already present in communal societies. As Bender (1990:260) has stated, "ideology and power take their form and meaning from what is already there, from the specific, his- torically constituted political and economic conditions." This has to be done through a slow process in which the practices and beliefs of the old social order are redefined or reoriented to legitimize the authority of the emerging elite (instead of the community) while other societal forms, which emphasized communality, are dismantled. The process has to be slow and gradual to avoid the reactivation of the egalitarian mechanisms that might push the process back.

In egalitarian societies a powerful belief that is sometimes used to increase and maintain solidarity and cohesiveness within a group is the con- nectedness of all members of the same kin group through descent from a common ancestor(s). The idea of a common ancestry establishes particular forms of social relationships among members of the same kin group that are accompanied by a system of obligations and responsibilities. The solidarity of the group is maintained to a certain point

through these obligations and responsibilities. Furthermore, because of this common ancestry, there is a common inheritance of basic resources, and the kin group acts as a corporate group within which no private property exists and access to surplus labor is widespread (Saitta 1997). All members of the group have the right to have access to resources. The ancestors also tend to have a dual identity: on the one hand they are still part of the kinship group bound to kinship obligations of the natural world while, on the other, they belong to the supernatural world and have access to its powers. It is this dual identity of the ancestors that makes them an ideal path for con- tacting the supernatural in many societies. Therefore, through rites related to the cult of the ancestors, people in the natural world have access to the powers and blessings of the supernatural necessary for the well-being of the group.

These characteristics of the roles, positions, and functions of the ancestors in communal societies make them an ideal nexus for developing the legitimizing ideologies that are used by an emerging elite. By reorienting or redefining the relationship between the ancestors and the people, chiefly elites can dismantle some aspects of communality at the same time that they legitimize their authority and control over status and resources. One way of doing this is by claiming closer proximity to the apical ancestor than that of other sectors of the community. By doing so, prospective leaders accomplish at least four things. They can (1) claim the most direct, and perhaps exclusive, access to the ancestors and to the supernatural world, (2) claim that they are direct descendants of the apical ancestor(s) and, therefore, inheritors or managers of the once communal resources, (3) dismantle or neutralize the system of obligations and responsibilities of extended kinship groups that maintained the communal ideology of egalitarianism, and (4) institutionalize the inequalities already present in the previously communal society. Thus, through the use of the ancestors, power is masked by being ideologically mystified and legitimated: "'Power over' is justified, in kin-based societies, by 'power from' the ancestors or the gods" (Bender 1990:260). Because of their ability to manipulate legitimizing ideologies, religious specialists are the most favorably situated to initiate the social







processes suggested here (Aldenderfer 1993, cited in Saitta 1997: 17).

At the same time that power is being estab- lished ideologically, the emerging elite has to gain control and access to information and materials that can support many of its enterprises and con- solidate support from the commoners. The dis- mantling or neutralization of the extended kin group (which probably also functioned as a corporate group) by the emerging elite is a necessary step to ensure control over basic resources and status, to eliminate possible competition, and to remove any possible mechanism of communality. Our argument is related to Upham's (1990) con- tention that "the evolution of power relations in small-scale societies occurs when decision mak- ing becomes linked to the use and possession of basic resources" and that this "can only occur when relationships and institutions are disembed- ded from the kinship networks that prevail in many pre-state societies." This change can create and enhance the profound inequalities that are characteristic of stratified societies.

In summary, it is argued here that an emerging elite often makes use of existing ideology regarding ancestors to dismantle and reorient different aspects of communality and institutionalize inequality. On the one hand, the mystery of the ancestors is reoriented to focus more on the elite

while, on the other, communal institutions such as the extended kin group are dismantled to ensure restricted access to resources and status. Most probably this emerging elite included religious specialists who could easily control and manipulate the existing communal religious ideology to change it into an elite ideology. These changes should be observable in different aspects of the archaeological record, and in this work we concentrate on the mortuary data from eastern Puerto Rico to illustrate our argument. Other sources of information, such as ball courts, plazas, and domestic structures, are also considered but to a lesser extent. The following section presents a brief synopsis of Puerto Rican culture history to set the backdrop for our discussion.

Brief Synopsis of Puerto Rican Cultural Developments

Puerto Rico is the smallest of the Greater Antilles. It is strategically located as a gateway to the even larger islands of Hispaniola and Cuba to the west, and to the string of smaller islands that comprise the Bahamian Archipelago to the north (Figure 1). To facilitate the discussion, only the Ceramic Age is considered in this section. An updated chronological chart for eastern Puerto Rico is presented in Figure 2. For a more detailed discussion of Puerto Rican culture history, the

Figure 1. The Caribbean Basin and archaeological sites of Puerto Rico mentioned in the text.

: 20 KM K - I



Hacienda Grande style (or complex). In southeastern Puerto Rico and Vieques Island, however, another distinctive Saladoid style, La Hueca, has been identified (Figure 2; for a different view, see Chanlatte Baik 1981, and Chanlatte Baik and Narganes Storde 1983, 1985, 1990).

The late Cedrosan population, archaeologically defined by the Cuevas ceramic style (Figure 2), eventually spread from the coastal valleys into the intermediate hills of Puerto Rico (Curet 1992b; Lundberg 1985; Oliver 1992b, 1995; Rodriguez 1992). This expansion into new niches was also marked by simplification of ceramic vessel forms and decoration. In general, Cedrosan Saladoid sites are often circular to horseshoe in shape, the outer perimeter formed by domestic midden deposits surrounding an open, cleared space (Oliver 1992a, 1992b:42-ff.; Siegel 1991, 1992: 193, 398-399; Watters 1994). Domestic structures seem to have been relatively large extended family houses (Curet 1992a). No site hierarchy is apparent during this period (Curet 1992b; Rodriguez 1992).

Although the evidence for ceremonialism and symbolism during the Saladoid series is abun- dant, no significant social differentiation has been reported for the intrasite distribution of such arti- facts. Furthermore, no differential mortuary treatment has been reported that might reflect status differentiation, although in some cases burials varied in the quantity and nature of items included. We suspect that the Saladoid prehistoric groups were organized in egalitarian, independent communities.

Transition to the Ostionoid Series: Colonizing the Interior Region of the Island (A.D. 600-1200) By about A.D. 600, major shifts in the pottery assemblage, an increase in regional diversifica- tion of ceramic styles, and changes in settlement patterns are observed. As Roe (1989) aptly noted, the descendants of the late Saladoids no longer looked back to the traditional continental models, and thus became true islanders. This mainland-to- island shift, as reflected in aspects of the archaeological record, marks the emergence of the Ostionoid series (Rouse 1992). Two new ceramic styles developed out of the Cuevas background: Early Ostiones style in the western part of the

island, and Monserrate style in the eastern part of Puerto Rico (Oliver 1990, 1995; Rodriguez 1992; Rouse 1992). These, in turn, evolved into Late Ostiones and Santa Elena styles in their respec- tive core areas. The western and eastern sets of stylistic developments have been grouped into the Ostionan and Elenan subseries, respectively (Figure 2).

During the early part of this series, houses tended to remain large for extended families. However, they decreased in size dramatically, possibly to nuclear family houses, during the second half (Curet 1992a) . The arrangement of houses in villages varied greatly. Although in some cases structures seem to have been arranged around a central plaza, in others they followed a more or less linear pattern along the coast. During this time the indigenous population continued expanding into the interior of the island, and the large numbers and sizes of sites, indicate a rapid population increase, especially for the second half of the series (Curet 1992b). The combination of nuclear villages and dispersed settlements is a significant change from the almost exclusive nucleated settlements of Period IIb (late Saladoid series).

Early in Period IIIa (Figure 2) the first stone- demarcated precincts, many of them with iconography represented in petroglyphs, appeared in Puerto Rico. Sites with one or two marked precincts coexisted with the earlier introduced circular or horseshoe-shaped villages that had begun in earlier Saladoid times. By the end of the Ostionan-Elenan period (Figure 2: Period IIIb), sites with two or more stone-aligned precincts already had developed. By this time (ca. A.D. 900), hierarchical arrangements of sites tied into local and regional ceremonial centers existed, probably signaling the coalescence of territories into chiefdoms or cacicazgos (Curet 1992b; Oliver 1992b, 1995; Rodriguez 1992; Rouse 1992; Siegel 1991, 1992). Tibes, with over 11 precincts, is the largest and most complex of these Period III multiple-precinct sites (terminal date of ca. A.D. 1200). The Rise of the Chican Ostionoid and Taino (A.D. 1200-1500) By about A.D. 1000-1200, the full range of econiches in Puerto Rico was occupied (Curet




Maria PatriciaSticky Notewouldn't that in itself represent a stratified society, since access to different amounts of "prestige" items would indicate some control over the commerce of said items?




Maria PatriciaSticky Notethis implies that the creation of a "complex" ceremonial/religious set of beliefs is necessarily linked to the emergence of chiefdoms, we have to remember however that chiefdoms are identified not only through ceremonial complexity but mainly through economic control of water, exotic trade and most importantly LABOR!

Curet and Oliverl MORTUARY PRACTICES IN PRECOLUMBIAN PUERTO RICO 223

1992b; Rodriguez 1992). The high interior moun- tains of the island were the last major geographic zone to be colonized in Puerto Rico. This final push also was accompanied by changes in ceramic style throughout the island, with the Capa style predominating in the west and Esperanza in the east. Both ceramic styles are grouped in the Chican subseries (see Figure 2). Ceremonial centers and sites with one, two, or more stone- aligned precincts continued to be built, as did traditional sites characterized by unmarked, open central spaces surrounded by mounded middens. As with the previous period, houses tended to be small in size, possibly for nuclear families. The settlement pattern included both nucleated villages and isolated houses. A site hierarchy has been reported for this time (Curet 1 992b; Rodriguez 1992) that seems to follow a nucleated model with small sites located around a large, multiplaza site.

Capa and Esperanza (Chican subseries) styles continued until shortly after the Spanish conquest of the historic Taino. According to the Spanish chronicles, the political organization of this cultural group ranged from simple to paramount chiefdoms. Thus, contrary to traditional views, a mosaic of different levels of complexity seems to have existed throughout the Greater Antilles.

Burial Practices in the Early Historic and Archaeological Records

The Ethnohistoric Evidence In general, the early sixteenth-century historic accounts do not provide much information about Taino bunal practices (cf. Morban Laucer 1979).' Most accounts concentrate on the burials of the elite mostly caciques, perhaps nitainos as well and little, if anything, was recorded about the funerary practices of the general population or naboria.' Furthermore, most descriptions refer almost exclusively to the natives of Hispaniola, while information on mortuary practices from other islands is scarce. Because of these limita- tions, Caribbean scholars have been forced to apply the descriptions from Hispaniola to their particular islands of study or to rely mainly on archaeological data.

In terms of chiefly burials, almost all writers agree that a common custom was to bury a dead

cacique with one of his living wives (Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez 1959:I: 119; Las Casas 1967:II:340; MartirdeAngleria 1964:371), aprac- tice that has been reported for chiefdoms in other parts of the world (e.g., Sahlins 1958). Unfortunately, it seems that all the chroniclers referred to the same funeral event in Hispaniola's Xaragua chiefdom, thus casting doubt as to how widespread this sacrificial practice really was. Some note that chiefly burial practices varied from one chieftainship to another. For example, Hernan Colon (1984:185) provides a list of various funerary practices used by different polities that included opening the body and drying it over a fire, placing the head of a deceased chief in a basket or gourd, burying him (or her) in a cave with cassava bread (Manihot esculenta) and water, and cremating the body in the house where he or she died. Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez (1959:I:119) provided additional details about the body and tomb preparation. According to Oviedo, the body of the deceased chief was wrapped with cotton bandages from head to feet and was seated on a ceremonial stool (duho) inside a wooden tomb.

As mentioned above, little is known about commoner burials. Bartolome de Las Casas (1967:II:346) was the only chronicler to note that there were differences between chiefly and commoner burials, but he was uncertain of the true nature of these customs. The only thing he recalled, he reported, about commoners' funerary practices was that he thought they were buried outside the houses, in the forest, due to their fear of spirits.3

Another form of funerary practice mentioned in the early Spanish chronicles involved the placement of selected bones of the deceased relatives in an higuero (gourd, calabash) vessel or a basket, that then was hung inside the house (e.g., Colon 1984: 106; Las Casas 1967:I:246). Although these observations were largely restricted to Cuba, gourd or basket burials also are mentioned for Hispaniola in two related Taino myths about the origin of the ocean and fish col- lected by Ramon Pane (1978:28-30; Stevens- Arroyo 1988:88, 103). This practice implies that selected bones skulls are specifically mentioned from primary interments were later gath- ered and brought into a household context, thus becoming the object of ancestor worship.







LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 9, No.3, 1998 224

As can be gleaned from the above summary, the brief descriptions provided by the chroniclers are somewhat confusing, incomplete, and in some cases contradictory. At best, one can only ascer- tain that burial practices varied within and between indigenous groups of the different islands, and even among chieftainships within the same island. Therefore, it cannot be assumed either that all groups of the Greater Antilles shared the same funerary practices during proto- and early historic times or that there was a nor- mative burial practice. However, one also can infer from the same documentary sources that during late prehistoric times ( 1 ) the deceased were interred neither in communal burial grounds nor in cemeteries, but each body was buried indi- vidually, and (2) deceased elite individuals (caciques) tended to receive more elaborate funerals than commoners.

The Archaeological Evidence With rare exceptions (e.g., Budinoff 1991; Crespo 1989), the study of burial practices in Puerto Rico has been severely hindered by diverse method- ological problems. While many burials and skeletons have been found in Puerto Rico since the last century, little is known about their spatial, chronological, and cultural contexts. The near absence of contextual burial data is the result of an emphasis on establishing cultural chronology, based on the excavation of "telephone booth" (2 x 2 m) test pits that, until recently has dominated Puerto Rican archaeology. Even less is known about the osteological characteristics of individuals.4 While standard test pits may be adequate for developing basic cultural sequences, they are inadequate for defining relationships between the burials themselves and other features in the larger context of the village or settlement. As a result of such excavation strategies, sample sizes tend to be inappropriate for defining cultural patterns.

The following discussion presents a brief review of archaeological projects that have uncovered an "adequate" number of burials and, to some extent, reported contextual data. Eastern Puerto Rico is overrepresented in this sample. The location of the sites included in the foregoing discussion is shown in Figure 1.

Probably the first archaeologist to report lim- ited, contextual data on prehistoric Puerto Rican

burials was Jesse Fewkes (1903:457, 1907:82-3). At the Salto Arriba site, Fewkes (1903:457) excavated a "mound." In this mound, he found what appears to be a living floor ("a hard gravel base" [Fewkes 1903:457]) along with 10 burials that included both adults and infants. No reference is made by Fewkes to the chronological or cultural context of either the burials or the mound. Subsequent studies (Rouse 1952:494-495) determined, however, that the ceramics belong to the Ostiones style and that the mounds are composed of domestic refuse middens.

Excavations performed by Rainey (1940:75-83 and Appendix) at the site of Monserrate yielded a total of 63 interments. All the burials seemed to be related to what then was called the "Shell Culture" (i.e., post-Saladoid)5; based on Rainey's (1940) description of the ceramic decoration, the assemblages seem to be affiliated with the Elenan and Chican subseries, as defined by Rouse (1986, 1992). However, in a later reanalysis, Rouse (1952) confirmed that most of the burials came from a locus (Mound A) primarily affiliated with an Elenan occupation, with some Cuevas survival traits. Rouse's review implies that the burials could be assigned to either or both Monserrate and Santa Elena occupations (see Figure 2). Associated materials consisted mostly of sherds, shells, ashes, charcoal, faunal remains, and blackened sand, all of which suggest that the burials were located in a domestic context. Thus, burials were placed either under the house or in an adj acent trash midden. Unfortunately, no other features were reported that could clarify the specific mortuary contexts.

The site of Monserrate, along with Rainey's data, was subsequently subjected to further study by Alegria in 1947 and by Roe in 1978 (Roe et al. 1990). These later excavations concentrated on two other middens (Mounds B and C), comple- menting Rainey's work. Alegria discovered 44 interments in Mound B and 19 in Mound C, while Roe exhumed three additional burials from the latter mound. Based on ceramics, Mound B seems to have been occupied primarily during Periods II and III (Figure 2), while the bulk of the ceramics from Mound C are clearly Elenan (Roe et al. 1990:345). Although all the burials from Mound C are probably Elenan, those from Mound B cannot be assigned with certainty to any particular





ceramic series. From the description of the deposits presented by Roe et al. (1990), it seems that burials from both Mounds B and C were placed in domestic contexts.

Another site from which we have mortuary data is the ceremonial center of Tibes, near Ponce (Alvarado Zayas 1981; Gonzalez Colon 1984). The core area of Tibes comprises some 11 stone- demarcated precincts. The site is equaled in complexity only by the succeeding Chican center at Caguana, near Utuado (Figure 1). Given its architectural complexity, Tibes has been interpreted as the seat of one of the earliest chiefdoms in the Caribbean (Curet 1992b; Oliver 1992a, 1992c; Rouse 1992: 126; Veloz Maggiolo 1991: 170- 171). Equally important, Tibes developed in situ and contains both Saladoid and Elenan Ostionoid deposits. As a result, this site provides a rare opportunity to examine the gradual changes from egalitarian (Cedrosan Saladoid) to more complex sociopolitical manifestations (Elenan Ostionoid). All the stone-aligned precincts have been assigned to Period III (i.e., the Elenan occupation). Although describing them in a rather preliminary fashion, Gonzalez Colon (1984) also reported the presence of both isolated interments and clustered burials in different parts of the site.

Two concentrations of burials assigned to the Saladoid period were found at Tibes. One was found inside the later (Elenan) central quadrangular precinct of the site (precinct No. 6), and the other was found 50 m outside the boundaries of precinct No. 6 (Gonzalez Colon 1984:174) under ball court No. 3. In other words, the central por- tion of Tibes once was used as a graveyard, before the construction of the Elenan precinct. Although the total number and density of burials belonging to the Saladoid occupation are unknown, they seem to have been purposefully concentrated in a kind of burial ground located in the central clearing of the site (Curet and Rodriguez Gracia 1997; Gonzalez Colon 1984:262; Oliver 1998).6

That the central quadrangular precinct was built on top of a Saladoid burial area suggests continuity in the use of this space as a public, communal gathering area from one period to the next. It is significant that after the demarcation of the central precinct with stones, the area was no longer used as a burial ground.

Unlike the earlier ones of the Saladoid, all

burials at Tibes associated with the Elenan series are located in domestic trash middens surrounding various precincts and not within any of them (Gonzalez Colon 1984:208, 263). It is clear that these burials were associated with domestic activity areas in contrast to central public areas.

The site of E1 Bronce (Figure 1), not far from Tibes, had a single, central precinct demarcated with stones that contained at least 10 human burials. In addition, several domestic areas represented by clusters of post molds and hearth features also were identified (Robinson et al. 1983, 1985). While some burials were located within the boundaries of the precinct, others appear to be associated with some of the concentrations of post molds and hearths (Robinson et al. 1985: Figure 5). Based on the distribution of the burials, the researchers suggest that the precinct also was used as a graveyard (Robinson et al. 1985:40). Unfortunately, this hypothesis cannot be tested because of the small sample size and the lack of chronological data; it has not been determined if the precinct was constructed before or after the interments. Furthermore, some burials were found inside post mold clusters, suggesting that they had originally been located in association with domestic areas, perhaps under houses.

A large number of burials has been reported from the site of Maisabel, on the northern coast of Puerto Rico (Budinoff 1991; Siegel 1989, 1991, 1992, 1996). Of 35 burials, 23 were located in the central part of the site, in an area of low artifact density surrounded by middens. Siegel reported that most of these burials seem to be primarily Saladoid, although four belong to the Monserrate period (IIIa), and possibly a few others are later Ostionoid burials (Siegel 1989: 199; 1992: 178, Table 4.13). Siegel also notes that the concentration of these burials in the central area of the site indicates the presence of a cemetery.7 Most of the remaining 12 burials of probable Elenan Ostionoid affiliation were located inside a house area (Siegel 1989:207; 1992). As at Tibes, it is obvious that most of the burials concentrated in the central public area of Maisabel belong to the Saladoid series; on the other hand, the burial distribution and practice for the Elenan series seem to have consisted mostly of burying the dead under (or in close association with) a domestic structure.








Playa Blanca-5 (also known as Ceiba-10) is a single-house Chican site on the eastern coast of Puerto Rico (Rivera and Rodriguez 1991). Most of the site was excavated, exposing 54 post molds, a hearth, and eight burials comprising six adults and two infants (Rivera and Rodriguez 1991:544-545). After the boundary of the house was defined (Curet 1992a), it was determined that seven of the eight skeletons were buried in the interior of the house. Only one, an infant, was buried outside the domestic structure. It is evident from this example that during the Chican Ostionoid the dead were interred in residential contexts.

At Punta Candelero, on the southeastern coast, 106 primary and secondary burials (and several dogs) from the Cuevas period were excavated (Crespo 1989, 1991; Rodriguez 1991). The Cuevas-period deposits are arranged in a horseshoe configuration around a central low, flat area that Rodriguez (1991) has identified as a plaza. Although many burials were distributed all over the site, at least 60 percent of them were concentrated in the low, central area of the settlement. The high concentration of burials in the central clearing led Rodriguez to conclude that this central public place fulfilled the dual function of plaza and burial ground.

Other types of burials have been reported as well. These include burials or skeletal remains found in caves8 and secondary burial bundles placed in ceramic vessels. Variability in mortuary practices in a single culture is not uncommon. The archaeological evidence confirms the obser- vation in the sixteenth-century chronicles that late Caribbean protohistoric and historic groups practiced a wide range of funerary customs. Although it is difficult to explain the full range of burial practices, it is clear from this review that prehistoric funerary customs were more complex and diverse than can be understood at present. For this reason, the following discussion focuses exclusively on patterns that can be discerned from

. .

exlstlng data.

Discussion and Summary This section develops preliminary characteriza- tions of the mortuary traditions practiced in each of the chronological and cultural periods of eastern Puerto Rico. The information on burials pre-

sented above is summarized in Table 1. Based on the available data, we propose the following ten- tative generalizations about temporal trends in burial practices in eastern Puerto Rico.9 During the Saladoid period, the dead tended to be placed in burial grounds concentrated in the central clearing of the site. This public space also functioned as a plaza or open space for communal gatherings. Based on the distribution of the deposits from the outer perimeter, these plazas were delimited by domestic units. No stones or markers were erected within plazas at this time. Because plazas were the only communal spaces in villages, the activities that occurred in them were varied and multiple, ranging from sacred to profane (Oliver 1992a, 1998; Rouse 1992).

During the Elenan and Chican series, the deceased were no longer buried in clusters in the central, public space. Rather, burials are found in a more dispersed pattern; in most cases they seem to be in close association with domestic areas, either under the house floor or in associated trash middens. As we have seen, evidence from the sites of E1 Bronce, Maisabel, and Playa Blanca suggests that one generalized post-Saladoid practice there could be others was to locate the burials under house floors. In terms of the overall spatial connotations, we see a shift away from the central public and communal space into periph- eral, private domestic areas (Gonzalez Colon 1984; Oliver 1998; Siegel 1992).

In conclusion, a shift from a centrally located communal burial ground to more individualized or domestic burials located at the periphery occurred in eastern Puerto Rico sometime between Period IIb (Cuevas) and Period IIIb (Elenan; see Figure 2). It is not clear if this change occurred during the transition between the Cuevas and Monserrate ceramic styles, or during the shift from the latter to the Santa Elena ceramic style. l

The transition in burial practices, however, was not an isolated phenomenon; it was related to other changes in the economic, religious, and political spheres reflected in the archaeological record for this period in eastern Puerto Rico. Technological, demographic, and sociopolitical changes included (1) an increase in incised decoration on ceramic vessels and a reduction in the use of paints and slips (Oliver 1990, 1992b;








Table 1. Summary of Archaeological Data on Burial Practices.

Burial Location

Central Domestic

Series Style Dates Sites Plaza Context Other

Saladoid N/D 300 B.C.-A.D. 600 Maisabel x

Cuevas

Cuevas

Monserrate

A.D. 400-600 Tibes

Candelero

A. D . 600-900 Maisabel

x

x

Elenan Ostionoid x

x

x

Monserrate

Tibes

Santa Elena A.D. 900-1200 El Bronce

Salto Arriba

Maisabel

Monserrate

Tibes

Chican Ostionoid Esperanza A.D. 1200-1500 El Bronce

Salto Arriba

Monserrate

Playa Blanca

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

*- X? refers to cases where information on chronological and/or spatial contexts are incomplete.

Rouse 1982, 1986, 1992); (2) a shift in the diet of prehistoric groups toward further specialization in marine resources (Goodwin 1979, 1980; Lopez Sotomayor 1975; Rainey 1940; Rouse 1986); (3) the intensification of agricultural production (Moscoso 1986; Ortiz Aguilu et al. 1993; Veloz Maggiolo 1977, 1987, 1991); (4) demographic growth, evidenced in the archaeological record by an increase in the number of sites (Curet 1987, 1992b, 1992c; Lopez Sotomayor 1975; Rodriguez 1985, 1992; Rouse 1986); (5) the appearance of functionally specific ball courts (Alegria 1983; Alvarado Zayas 1981; Gonzalez Colon 1984; Oliver 1998); (6) shifts in household size and composition from extended to nuclear families (Curet 1992a); and (7) the emergence of chiefdoms (Curet 1991, 1992b; Moscoso 1986, 1987; Rouse 1992; Veloz Maggiolo 1977, 1991). Therefore, changes in burial practices cannot be

explained merely as a simple shift in cultural traits. They also must be understood in relation to these other shifts in cultural practices as well as evident changes in the ideological realm. It is argued here that all these changes were part of the social processes involved in the development of social complexity in eastern Puerto Rico during Period III. The next section examines the relationships between changes in burial practices, ideology, and political economy on the one hand, and the development of an elite and a new political order on the other.

Changes in Mortuary Practices: Discussion and Implications

Several possible, but not necessarily mutually exclusive, explanations for the changes in mortuary practices from Periods II and III in eastern Puerto Rico are presented in this section. Two



principles developed by O'Shea (1984) constitute the basic premises of the argument presented below. Principle 1 states: "All societies employ some regular procedure or set of procedures for the disposal of the dead" (1984:33). Although it is recognized that cultures around the world use a wide variety of methods to dispose of the dead, and that some variability can exist even within a particular society, each one has a set of rules that constrains mortuary variability. In short, mortuary practices are patterned within each cultural context. O'Shea also states (Corollary 3a of Principle 3) that "The nature of the society will pattern and circumscribe the practices for the disposal of the dead" (O'Shea 1984:36; see also Bloch and Parry 1982). This statement stresses the strong relationship between the sociopolitical nature of society and culture and mortuary practices. It recognizes that mortuary practices do not occur in a social or cultural vacuum but within social, political, religious, and economic contexts at a particular point in time. Because the burial practices of a particular culture are strongly related to and reflect the nature of its social structure, we can glean valu- able insight about the social organization of prehistoric groups through the study of mortuary data.

Communal Burial Grounds During Periods II-IIIa Mortuary Practices, Social Organization, and Political Economy. Several cross-cultural studies have concentrated on the relationship between mortuary practices and the nature of the social structure among tribal societies. Saxe's (1970) and Goldstein's (1976) studies are cases in point. After comparing three different ethnic groups, Saxe proposed eight hypotheses. The most rele- vant of these can be paraphrased as follows: to the degree that the rights of corporate group rights to use and control crucial but restricted resources are attained or legitimized by means of lineal descent from the dead, such groups will maintain formal disposal areas for the exclusive disposal of their dead (cited in O'Shea 1984: Table 1.2 and Tainter 1978: 123) . More recently, Goldstein (1976) has tested this hypothesis on the basis of a more extensive sample of 30 ethnographic examples. Her conclusions suggest that the maintenance of formal burial disposal areas is only one among

many forms of ritual legitimization for the use and control of scarce resources by corporate groups. However, Goldstein also noted that the presence of formal disposal areas is strongly cor- related with individual corporate groups, while the absence of cemeteries corresponds with the absence of such modes of social organization (Goldstein 1976:58; cited in 0' Shea 1984: 13 and Tainter 1978:123; see also Charles and Buikstra 1983; Saxe 1970).

A similar argument has been suggested by Bloch and Parry (1982), who presented several ethnographic examples of communal burial practices in the form of collective tombs and family mausoleums. According to the authors, the function of these communal forms of disposing the dead is to symbolize the continuity of the property-holding kinship group. Within this context, they argue, "the individuality of the dead is downplayed to reinforce the symbol of the collective tomb or cemetery as the representation of the eternal undivided group" (Bloch and Parry 1982:32-36).

From the perspective of the present work it is important to comment further on the conclusions from these cross-cultural studies. According to these studies, communal forms to dispose of the dead are used by property-holding kinship groups to legitimize their control over critical resources and to perpetuate their continuity. The basic premise of this argument is that living descent group members would seek to have access to resources by affirming their descent group membership through rituals that connected them to common ancestors. In this context, the kin-based group is the basic unit for both social (i.e., kinship) and economic organization. In other words, the descent group which could be a lineage, moiety, clan, or even a family also has the role of corporate group (or what Hayden and Cannon [1982] have called the "residential corporate group") with some degree of economic control. While corporate groups have many dimensions, e.g., they are also social units, and "are ... closed and exert a pervasive influence on all aspects of individuals' lives" (Hayden and Cannon 1982: 135), the conclusions presented here emphasize their kinship and economic roles as owners or at least exclusive managers of the resources available. Thus, from an economic and







political perspective, these ethnographic studies show that cemeteries are used by kin-based corporate groups to legitimize their existence as owners, managers, and users of certain resources, including the territory. It is the membership of the deceased in the community that is being emphasized, rather than his/her individual identity (i.e., social persona).

The practice of tribal societies with corporate groups and lineal descent of burying their dead in formal disposal areas in the central clearing of the settlement is supported further by ethnographic reports on tropical lowland South American groups (e.g., Basso 1973:43, 58; Fabian 1992:61; Metraux 1948: Figure 11; Oberg 1953:67). For example, Basso (1973:43) has reported that among the Kalapalo of Brazil the village and extended family household act as corporate groups that are responsible for controlling the rights to territorial resources. In this case, the dead are buried in the middle of the central plaza or clearing in unmarked graves. The unmarked graves support Bloch's and Parry's (1982:34-35) argument that the emphasis of this type of mortuary practice is not on the individuality of the corpses, but rather on their communality as a whole. Therefore, common burial grounds where individual graves are not marked help strengthen the cohesiveness and solidarity of the corporate and tribal group and the community.

Archaeologically, this generalization can be used to interpret formal disposal areas for dead ancestors and the nature of the social structure that created them. Specifically, it provides useful insights into the nature and possible functions of the communal burial grounds found in the central clearings or plazas of Saladoid sites. On the basis of Saxe's and Goldstein's studies, it is reasonable to infer that central cemeteries reflect the presence of some kind of corporate group with a social organization based on lineal descent among the Saladoid people in Puerto Rico. Of course, the specific nature of these corporate groups moieties, clans, or lineages-cannot be determined without further work. In any case, if such groups were present, then critical material and ideological resources were not being controlled by individuals or small sectors of society, but by the kin-based corporate group as a whole, where everyone had access rights based solely on group

membership. This socioeconomic organization is characteristic of the so-called egalitarian end of the societal continuum (i.e., Service's "tribes" [1962]).

Also inferred from this argument is that if the community has two or more specific social sta- tuses related to the membership of different groups, then particular individuals could be placed outside the normal realm of community membership. This distribution is similar to the one found at the Saladoid component in Candelero, where several of the burials were located outside the central plaza. Alternatively, settlements could show greater variability in mortuary practices, perhaps the presence of more than one burial ground or a mix of clustered and dispersed burials reflecting different social affilia- tions. This pattern was observed at the site of Tibes, where two clusters of burials belonging to the Saladoid series were discovered under two different precincts. Thus, the argument presented above relating corporate groups and cemeteries provides hypotheses not only to explain the presence of clusters of burials in egalitarian sites, but also some of the exceptions to this pattern.

Mortuary Practices and Cosmology. From another perspective, the strong relationship of burials, the clearing or plaza, and the central location is not coincidental. The plaza has to be considered a multifunctional activity area that binds together the living and the dead into a whole, inte- grated community (Oliver 1992a, 1998). Therefore, numerous activities, sacred and secular, that take place in the public central space (and burial ground) involve the actual and symbolic participation of the ancestors buried underground and the communal gatherings on the ground.

Siegel (1989, 1992, 1996) and Oliver (1992a, 1998) have suggested that ideology, symbolism, and cosmology are intricately woven into the political-economic fabric of the societies in ques- tion. Among South Amerindian groups it is common to see villages consisting of a circle of houses surrounding a central plaza. In many instances, this arrangement is considered by the villagers to be (1) a cognitive model of the cosmos in general and representative of the social structure of the community, and (2) a blueprint for the spatial concentric layout and construction of the village itself (e.g., Basso 1973:44-5; Fabian


Maria PatriciaSticky Notewhat do the authors consider to be the marking of a grave? I find this concept confusing, there are very little cases in central and south america where specific markings are given to graves, and in some of those cases they are related to kinship groups and not to elite differentiation (see San Agustin). Would individual variability in terms of mortuary offerings and personal items not be considered then a sign of social differences?





1992:60; Gregor 1977:54-5, Figure 8; Guss 1989:21; Lathrap 1970:133; Metraux 1948; Oberg 1953:13, 70; Roe 1987; Siegel 1989:199).

Along the same line of thought, Siegel (1989:199, 1992) has observed that the central clearing in Saladoid sites is a public space that may have been a visual, spatial, and cosmological focal point; i.e., a pivot (sensu Wheatley 1971). Oliver (1992a:7, 1998) has also presented a similar argument for Saladoid sites, indicating that the central plaza and the burials represent the axis mundi linking the ancestors with the living. For example, Guss (1989:21) has demonstrated that the communal house or attal' among the modern Yekuana of the Upper Orinoco "is not only con- ceived of as a self-contained universe but is actu- ally constructed as a replica of the cosmos." In this case, the central post of the house (or village) represents the pivot through which the natural and supernatural worlds are connected (Guss 1989:22; cf. Siskind 1973:49; Wilbert 1981). It is in the area around the central post, which often serves no specific architectural function, that most of the religious ceremonies and rituals take place. The central post is often perceived as linking the celestial abode, the earthly domain, and the underworld.

Among many lowland South American groups, the village with its circular form not only represents a microcosm of the universe, but it is the cosmos (see Roe 1987; Siegel 1989: 199). That central space, the pivot (whether a post, central plaza, or an icon), as Lathrap (1985) once argued, can best be described as a sort of tridi- mensional magnetic field of cosmic power, with its concentric (or better yet, "eccentric") rings of attraction that, paradoxically, provide the dynamic equilibrium of the cosmos (see also McEwan 1992).

Given Tropical Forest (sensu Lathrap 1970, 1977) concepts of spatial symbolism, and that the prehistoric ancestors of the Saladoid peoples held such an ancient Tropical Forest world view, it is reasonable to postulate that they brought with them a closely related version of the concentric ring/magnet cognitive model (Roe 1987). The center of such a universe was the point of con- nection between the natural and the supernatural worlds. The plaza is a culturally and hence arbi-

trarily defined border, a liminal space (Leach 1976) that signals both the separation and the interconnection between two distinct domains. If this is an appropriate analogy for ancient Puerto Rico, then the location of burial grounds in the central clearing is most likely to be in structural and functional harmony with the cosmological principles governing the village layout. Because the central space of the village is the pivot where the natural and supernatural worlds conjoin, it follows that this is the ideal locus to bury the dead, to help them and the living in their passage back and forth between this world and the world of the ancestors.

The above discussion is in agreement with Siegel's (1989: 199, 1991 :235) and Oliver's (1992a:7) arguments that the communal burials in the central Saladoid plaza are related to the ancestor cult associated with many South American groups (e.g., Goldman 1963:190-202), because it is in that (liminal) space that the world of the living can interact with the world of the nonliving. In fact, kinship and descent ties that specify rights and duties among individuals and that bind those individuals together as a society can be estab- lished only with reference to the deceased buried under the plaza (Oliver 1992a). Here, the ancestors and the living are the center of the cosmos or the axis mundi upon which the whole cultural universe, including the social order, is based.

Thus, it is conceivable that the Saladoid burial grounds were instituted, in part, to legitimize both the extended, kin-based corporate groups that controlled rights over the resources within their territory and the ideology to perpetuate them. Particularly, it seems that this social and cultural argument made use of an ancestor cult, ritually enacted in the centrally located plaza/cemetery, to justify the existing order of the community and, more specifically, the descent group that acted as a corporate group. From this perspective, it can be argued that the change in mortuary practices in eastern Puerto Rican prehistory was likely related to changes in property rights and the social or descent group's organization and the symbolism that accompanied them. To understand these changes, we have to make some sense of the new mortuary tradition developed by post-Saladoid groups.


Maria PatriciaSticky Notea generalization! settlement patterns in south america with plazas and such does not imply burials in those cases burials are also found in the middle of the plaza, in reality it is hardly ever the case! the argument is poorly used in this reading!!!


Chiefdoms and Household-Related Burials During Periods 111 and IV

To understand the role of post-Saladoid mortuary practices, three developments have to be considered: (1) the abandonment of the central clearings as burial grounds and the development of stone- delimited precincts in many but not all settlements; (2) the disposal of the dead in domestic contexts, i.e., a shift from a public to a more private formal burial ground; and (3) the individualistic nature of, and special emphasis on, chiefly burials in late prehistoric times as described in the sixteenth-century chronicles. These three developments are part of the same inseparable process. While they are difficult to understand fully, these changes, we suggest, are indeed intimately related to the rise of chiefdoms and to the demise of previous tribal or egalitarian forms of organization. To simplify the discussion, we present possible explanations for these phenomena following the same order presented above for the Saladoid burial practices: the perspective of political, social, and economic organizations first, and cosmology last.

Mortuary Practices, Social Organization, and Political Economy. According to the same arguments presented for the previous period, the changes during post-Saladoid times seem to have involved a de-emphasis of descent and corporate group solidarity and a greater emphasis on the household group as the main social unit. This shift is reflected in the abandonment of the central clearing as the community's burial ground, with burials moved to domestic contexts. 12 Concurrently, there appears to have been a shift from extended household groups in the Saladoid and early Elenan Ostionoid periods to nuclear or smaller families during the late Elenan and Chican Ostionoid periods (Curet 1992a:Table 2). Burial and architectural data strongly suggest that the internal organization and structure of household groups and the community underwent major changes between the late Saladoid and early Ostionoid periods.

If Saladoid communal burial grounds functioned to perpetuate the primacy of corporate group solidarity and to legitimize community rights to the use of resources, then it is clear that this function changed drastically during post-

Saladoid times. Because burials were concentrated in domestic contexts during this period, then the effective social and economic unit in the emerging social order was not the community or descent group but the household group, which seems to have become smaller, possibly to the level of a nuclear or small extended family. As these social changes became entrenched, the household unit assumed an increasingly formal and important institutional role. A new level of integration was eventually achieved between the individual and society in which the role of managing communal resources was no longer at the level of the community, corporate, or descent group, but at the level of the household unit.'3

We also have to consider, however, that institutionalized social inequality and stratification began to develop at the same time among the Ostionoid groups, resulting in the formation of a hierarchy of households-commoners and elite. Management of resources and political leadership of the community were not passed from corporate groups to all household units during the Ostionoid period, but only to particular elite individuals or families. Household distincitions in wealth and power are reported by the sixteenth-century chroniclers (Curet 1992, 1996; Moscoso 1986, 1987; Oliver 1998). This view of each household managing the resources is further complicated and changed by the appearance of elite households claiming ownership or rights to control communal resources. Based on this argument, we postulate that in post-Saladoid times the corporate group had been replaced by an elite group or household that was able to assert control over and manage the critical, ideological, and symbolic resources that were once in the hands of communal institutions. If our reasoning is correct, this phenomenon must have had strong repercussions on the economic organization of prehistoric groups, especially at the level of land ownership and the organization of labor. This is a topic of interest that thus far has received little or no atten- tion in Puerto Rican archaeology.

If, as we have suggested, large descent groups lost their controlling function among post- Saladoid societies, then generalizations about the nature and functionality of prehistoric Caribbean social and kinship organization proposed for late



prehistoric groups-the Tainos-by many scholars (e.g., Keegan 1991; Keegan and Maclachlan 1989; Rouse 1948:529; Wilson 1990:33-34) would be inaccurate. Instead, we propose the alternative view that such corporate structure (1) had been entirely abandoned, (2) existed only at an ideological and superficial level reminiscent of the previous egalitarian structure, or (3 ) was important mostly in elite politics and had little relevance to the life of the population at large.

Mortuaq Practices, Cosmology, and Chiefly Power. Concurrent with the new emphasis on households, stone-demarcated precincts appeared at some sites, a development that has been corre- lated with the development of chiefdoms. In many instances, these precincts occupied the same central locations where clearings had been in Saladoid sites (e.g., Tibes site during Period II), and this change seems to indicate a shift in the function of the central areas of settlements. If we assume that post-Saladoid villages continued to be planned in terms of cosmological principles, then the changes in the use of the plaza as a burial ground signal a marked shift in the way that cosmology was linked to the supernatural. Oliver (1992a:8-9) has hypothesized that "the set of skeletal remains of the village ancestors, previously physical objects of the cult in the plaza, were to be replaced by other. . . symbols," possibly by the biomorphic petroglyphs commonly found in centrally located stone-aligned quadrangular plazas. It can then be argued that these new, indirect, physical symbols of the ancestors the iconography-were manipulated and used by the new emerging elite as an ideological tool for social and political control. In fact, the removal of the actual bones of the deceased from the central, quadrangular plaza of ceremonial centers like Tibes (Period III) or Caguana (Period IVa), also would have facilitated the central purpose of such primary centers of power, that is, to attract or sub- ordinate other communities and their leaders who have no real descent or kinship claims to the ancestors that validate the ceremonial center's power (Oliver 1998). The alternative, of course, is coercive power, but peaceful and diplomatic per- suasion via the manipulation of ancestors- removal of the dead and iconographic substitution is always more cost-effective for elites.

A similar line of thought, based on early historic documents and archaeological data, Siegel (1991) and Oliver (1992a) has suggested that the ancestor cult continued into early historic times. The specific forms in which this cult was enacted, however, had probably changed from one period to the next. As proposed in the previous section, an important function of the ancestor cult during Saladoid times was to increase social cohesiveness and solidarity to legitimize the kin-based corporate group as ultimate manager of critical resources and to provide it with continuity. Because such groups seem to have lost their primacy during the Ostionoid period, and because individuals were buried in household contexts, the functions of the Saladoid ancestor cult must have been either transformed to emphasize the household group or eliminated. Based on the archaeological evidence presented earlier, it seems that one of the main functions of the ancestor cult in post-Saladoid times (if it was present) was to symbolize the continuity of the household, rather than the extended descent group. A possible exception to this generalization was the ancestor cult of elite households, which was probably imposed on the general population to legitimize the position of the chief as the official cult leader of the group.

In his recent analyses of the primary ceremonial center of Caguana (Period IVa), Oliver (1992a:37, 1992c, 1998) has demonstrated that the cacique's leadership (and that of his/her household) and both political and religious power were legitimized through conscious manipulation of the iconography of this site. At this site, the engraved petroglyph of the cacique of Caguana is at the center of the row of monoliths of the central quadrangular plaza, framed by a pair of high- ranking numinous ancestral personages (bones) and by a pair of low-ranking descendant personages (flesh). The cacique is structurally posi- tioned as the axis mundi of the new social order (Oliver 1992a:37, 1998). He/she becomes the central figure in contrast to the community and to the individuals that once were buried under the plaza. The figure is at the liminal space or border between two incompatible worlds, and thus functions as the mediator between the ancestral extra- ordinary and the natural ordinary worlds; he/she is at the center of the cultural order and legit-



Maria PatriciaSticky Notewhere is the archaeological evidence for this claim, in puerto rico?? where are the elite differentiated graves?



imizes power through direct access to the ancestors and to the principles of descent that they embody. Thus, it is reasonable to propose that chiefly authority was measured and justified in Puerto Rican prehistory in terms of genealogical and topological proximity to the ancestors (perhaps to an apical elite ancestor, real or fictive) and to the supernatural world.lu

This interpretation closely fits the special treatment deceased chiefs received, according to the early European chronicles for the Greater Antilles. In this case, the "tomb of a single individual cornpletely undermines the anti-individu- alism of the communal burial grounds and becomes the focus of the continuity and fertility of the community" (Bloch and Parry 1982:35). Here, continuity of the kin-based corporate group and its legitimization through the use of communal burial grounds are not the focus of the mortuary practice as was the case during the Saladoid period. On the contrary, it is the chiefly or cacical line that is stressed through this special treatment at death, emphasizing again the central position of chiefs and their ancestors.

All of these observations suggest the gradual development of an official visual, ideological cue simultaneous with, but not preceded by, the entrenchment of power in the hands of high- ranked, chiefly household lineages. The iconographic propaganda now becomes blatantly clear and unambiguous: without the cacique's power, cosmic and social order would degenerate into chaos. And all of this, we argue, could happen only after disengaging the skeletal population- the powerful ancestral opius (souls of the dead) and their communal burial grounds from what was the magnet and vortex of numinous power: the central plaza of the village.

In sum, the changes in mortuary practices during the Ostionoid period in eastern Puerto Rico appear to reflect major changes in the social, economic, political, and ideological atmosphere. In particular, the changes are characterized by the disappearance of kinship groups acting as corporate groups, a new emphasis on household groups, a change in cosmology, and a transformation of the ancestor cult or, perhaps, appropriation of the ancestor cult by the elite. All these developments seem to go hand in hand with the appearance of social hierarchy and the control of critical

economic and symbolic resources by a small elite sector of the society.

Conclusions Prehistoric groups in Puerto Rico changed their mortuary practices from burying their dead in the central plaza of the village to placing them in primarily domestic locations or, perhaps, other contexts such as caves. This shift seems to be intimately related to other social, political, economic, and ideological changes inferred from the archaeological record. We have argued that the practice of burying the dead in the central area of sites during the Saladoid series befits a society organized in terms of extended corporate groups perhaps lineages, clans, or moieties- and that it was used to legitimize their existence as owners and managers of material, ideo]ogical, and social resources. This ideology and custom probably originated in, and subsequently diverged from, the traditions brought to the Antilles from South America by the early Saladoid immigrants.

During post-Saladoid times, however, mortuary practices underwent a transformation. Although it is possible that other practices, such as disposing of the dead in caves, also were used, the evidence from habitation sites suggests that most individuals were buried in household contexts, i.e., under house floors or in middens. Thus, burials appear to emphasize the increasing pre- eminence attained by individual household units at the expense of larger kinship groups. In this overall post-Saladoid pattern of social organization, corporate descent groups were lacking or, at least, corporate power was severely diminished. The household became the most important social unit below the level of the community. In general, there was an increase in formalization and definition of the household unit while other evidence points to the concurrent emergence of social inequality. It is not illogical to assume, therefore, that a household hierarchy also developed, in which some households, presumably those of elite families, took over some functions from corporate groups.

Furthermore, if the natural world is a replica of the supernatural world, as many South American groups believe (Guss 1989:21), then a hierarchy also existed in the world of the ancestors, where dead relatives of the chiefly line were more pow-



erful and influential with the deities than those of commoners. From this perspective, chiefly or elite households acquired higher status and prestige not only by claiming proximity to the world of the ancestors, but also by claiming to have ancestors and spiritual beings (cemfs; see below) of a higher rank or status. In this context, caciques have to be seen as exclusive power brokers between the natural and supernatural worlds. During the Saladoid period the ancestors were buried in a public, highly visible central space accessible to everyone; later, access to the supernatural world was restricted to and controlled by the chief and his immediate relatives. Indeed, while once all public activities took place in the same central space, by Period IIIb distinct precincts were functionally and spatially segre- gated, suggesting more restricted participation and specialized access to ceremonial and ritual

. . .

actlvltles.

The role of the chief as mediator among late Caribbean groups is presented in several instances in the early European chronicles. For example, chiefs had exclusive ownership of "powerful zemies" (cemEs) or idols, located in the chiefly houses that also functioned as temples (Las Casas 1967:II: 173; Martir de Angleria 1964: 191). On some occasions, they were also the exclusive performers of the rite of the cohoba, one of the most important ceremonies of the Tainos, in which "deities" were consulted about future projects by snuffing hallucinogens (Martir de Angleria 1964:196). Finally, they had exclusive knowledge of the meanings of religious myths (Martir de Angleria 1964: 195). All these examples clearly demonstrate the intermediary position of chiefs between the people and the supernatural.

In addition to religious, social, and political status, the ideology expressed in burial practices also extended to the economic sphere. It is obvious from the chronicles that caciques, as opposed to commoners, had control over aspects of production and distribution, including the utilization of resources, organization of labor, and steward- ship of resources (Curet 1992b:72-73). Although it is difficult to argue for the presence of private ownership of the land among Puerto Rican chiefdoms (see Lopez Sotomayor [1975] and Tabio and Rey [1966] for arguments against this idea,

and Earle [1991] for one in favor), there are strong indications that some changes occurred in the organization of labor and distribution of resources. Thus, chiefs acted at least as exclusive managers, if not owners, of the resources in their territories. lS

Archaeological data from Puerto Rico support our argument concerning the mechanisms involved in the processual development of social complexity. On the one hand, it seems that emerging elite in prehistoric Puerto Rico took over the previously egalitarian institutions of the ancestor cult and related communal ceremonies to legitimize their position in society and restrict access to the supernatural world. They claimed closer proximity to an apical high-status ancestor. At the same time, they dismantled other communal institutions such as the descent corporate groups to take control of the resources necessary to finance their enterprises and the social status to ensure their position. In doing this, the emerging elite effectively eliminated many of the communal mechanisms and possible sources of competition while institutionalizing social inequality through manipulation of rituals, symbols, and public space, i.e., plazas and ball courts.

In summary, changes in mortuary practices in Puerto Rican prehistory strongly correlate with shifts in the ideological, social, political, and economic structures. Although the topic is complex, and the suggestions presented here are still somewhat preliminary, the main purpose of this paper is not to develop new laws of social evolution but to motivate further discussion and debate concerning the nature and dynamics of social and cultural change, particularly in the Greater Antilles. Topics that should be addressed by future studies are the identification of the critical resources controlled first by the kin-based corporate groups and later by the elite, the reorganiza- tion of labor, and the role of households both elite and commoner before, during, and after the development of social complexity.

Acknowledgments An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology held at Anaheim in 1994. We would like to thank Mary Jane Berman, Christopher Goodwin, William Keegan, Mark Mitchell, John O' Shea, Miguel Rodriguez, Barbara Stark, Tammy Stone, and Dave Watters for commenting on earlier



versions of this paper. The comments provided by Gary Feinman, one of the editors of this journal, enhanced the pre- sentation format and the quality of the article. His help is greatly appreciated.

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