Sociey and perception of ancestor in the Jomon Period as seen from the deviant treatments of the dead

• Project/Area Number: 15K02983
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Archaeology
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Ishikawa Takeshi 九州大学, 比較社会文化研究院, 学術研究員 (40332837)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,860,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥660,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
• Keywords: 遺体の取扱い / 特異な埋葬 / 遺体毀損 / 断体儀礼 / 縄文社会 / 祖先観 / 先史社会複雑性 / 人骨 / 骨考古学 / 社会の複雑性 / 縄文時代 / 葬送行為 / ジェンダー / 先史社会 / Deviant burial

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study focused on deviant treatments of the dead using skeletal remains of the Jomon Period in eastern Japan. The social complexity is also estimated by cemetery analysis and tooth crown measurements for evaluating the　atypical burials. Arrangement of human bones in grave revealed post-mortem disarticulation of the dead. This unusual treatment of body might be caused by the fear of rebirth of the dead and also be a result of social persona of his/her living time but not unusual death as suicide and accidental death. The social complexity was estimated to be relatively egalitarian but not stratified during the Middle and the Late Jomon periods.
Fear of rebirth of specific individual who has unusual social persona caused the deviant disarticulation of the body and other atypical mortuary treatments. This unusual treatment indicated these individuals were negatively treated in the funerary context not as specific person in the stratified society seen in ethnographic resources.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] 埋葬遺体の特異な取り扱いからみた縄文墓制について (2017)
  • Author(s): 石川健
  • Journal Title: 考古学ジャーナル Volume: 702 Pages: 30-32
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] 論文展望 民族誌的類推の運用と縄文社会復元 (2017)
  • Author(s): 石川健
  • Journal Title: 季刊考古学 Volume: 139 Pages: 107-107
• [Presentation] Treatments of the dead in funerary context: Ritual disarticulation in prehistory of archipelago. (2017)
  • Author(s): Ishikawa Takeshi
  • Organizer: Annual Meeting of European Association of Archaeologists 2017
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Visualised denial of social identity in the mortuary process: Deviant burials during the Middle Jomon Period, Japan (2016)
  • Author(s): 石川健
  • Organizer: Theoretical Archaeology Group 2016 Southampton
  • Place of Presentation: University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
  • Year and Date: 2016-12-21
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Visualised denial of rebirth of the dead in the mortuary process: Ritual disarticulation during the Middle Jomon Period in Japan (2016)
  • Author(s): 石川健
  • Organizer: Theoretical Archaeology Group 2016 Southampton
  • Place of Presentation: University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
  • Year and Date: 2016-12-21
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Book] 田中良之先生追悼論文集 考古学は科学か？ (2016)
  • Author(s): 田中良之先生追悼論文集編集委員会編、石川健
  • Total Pages: 1200
  • Publisher: 中国書店
• [Book] A Bioarchaeological Perspective of Atypical Mortuary Practices: A Geographic and Temporal Investigation (2016)
  • Author(s): Amy B. Scott, Tracy K. Betsinger, Anastasia Tsaliki (Editors), Takeshi Ishikawa
  • Total Pages: 300
  • Publisher: The University Press of Florida
• [Remarks] EAA 2017 Maastricht 30 August - 3 September 2017
  • URL: http://www.eaa2017maastricht.nl/en