17th November 2005, 10:35 AM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by eggbasket
As far as grave goods are concerned, surely they are intended in part to show, [u]by appearance</u>, who and what the person in the grave was?
If you think about it that is most obviously not the case. Grave goods are always selected by a third party, so represent somebody elses opinion and not that of the deceased.
Heard an interesting paper at the SHA conference in York about grave goods buried with pre-1860 and post-1860 African Americans. Nearly always the grave goods appeared to represent the economic and social aspirations of the surviving partner or family member rather than the deceased. Men had little high value but relatively frequent nostalgia goods (representative of the good sense of their surviving womenfolk*), whereas women had the more gaudy high value goods (their menfolks 'gratitude' gifts*). *Comments in brackets are mine.