Ritual Closure: Rites De Passage and Apotropaic Magic in an Animate World

Magic and witchcraft, classic topics in the anthropology of religion, involve everyday things such as ashes, ceramics, minerals, shell, and projectile points. In many cultures, people attribute agency to such artifacts, as well as architecture, begging the question what is the archaeological record...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of archaeological method and theory 2023-06, Vol.30 (2), p.449-494
Main Authors: Walker, William H., Berryman, Judy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Anthropology of religion
Archaeology
Case studies
Ceramics
Ethnography
Minerals
Neolithic
Rites of passage
Social Sciences
Villages
Witchcraft
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Summary:Magic and witchcraft, classic topics in the anthropology of religion, involve everyday things such as ashes, ceramics, minerals, shell, and projectile points. In many cultures, people attribute agency to such artifacts, as well as architecture, begging the question what is the archaeological record of such animate beings? To understand past human lifeways more fully, we need to explore the formation processes associated with the interaction between people and other non-human actors. For example, what might we learn from a burned pueblo whose rooms contain ash, projectile points, crystals, and other items? In this paper we argue that deposits in ritually closed pueblos of the North American Southwest, like many other Neolithic villages, likely contain purposely deposited objects in an effort to neutralize the anima left in these places and to prophylactically protect their former inhabitants from future witchcraft. We present Cottonwood Spring Pueblo, New Mexico, as a case study.
ISSN:1072-5369
1573-7764
DOI:10.1007/s10816-022-09565-7