Abstract

In this paper I express several considerations that should be made when defining 'children' in the mortuary record. There are three issues involved in defining children in the mortuary record. The first involves the physical identification of children. The second concern is how the mortuary treatments accorded children are analyzed and described. The third issue involves how we translate material remains and patterns into social behaviour. To socially define children, the social rank and status of children must be determined within the social boundaries of the society they belonged. In this paper I address these problems by using a new methodology that allows the social rank and status accorded children to be described (cf. Fowler 1997a, 1997b). A recent analysis of mortuary remains dating to the Greek Neolithic period (6500-3200 BC; Fowler 1997a, 1997b) serves as an example of how children may be socially recognized through mortuary activity. I suggest several possible reasons why children are give mortuary treatments, alternative to adults. Despite the variability in mortuary ritual, I suggest that the treatment of children in the mortuary record is governed by the same social rules of membership and exclusion directing the disposal program of adults. I also argue that the meaning behind the differential treatment of children at death cannot simply be explained by biological factors alone. Rather, as with adults, the social rank and status of children play a key role in defining: 1) their relationships to each other; 2) their relationships to other members of the community; and 3) the general prohibitive and customary constraints on social behaviour, which characterizes the structure and organization of a society.