ANTH 351: Archaeology of Death

Course Description

This course is a survey of mortuary archaeology, that is how cultural norms, social relations, belief systems, and ideas about life and death shaped mortuary practices in the past. In this course, we will look at death and the body in terms of ideas about mortality, afterlives, and social identity. We will also address the fact that the dead do not bury themselves, and practices surrounding death do not reflect solely the individual but can tell us about broader social, political, and economic, and religious systems.