pantomimes and farce:costumes and competence

[troll]

John-there is no such thing as a concensus of opinion in archaeology.The "status" of inhumed/cremated individuals is an old pre-occupation of antiquarians. Sadly, there are those amongst us who indulge in television quality theorising. Frankly, interpretation of an individual and or their society through the study of grave goods is fraught with danger.In simple terms, material culture alone is no grounds for even assuming belief in an "afterlife". Phenomenology in my view is a world apart from the study of material culture although they are not mutually exclusive.I started this thread as I`m fascinated by behaviour.In particular, how people today read each others clothing and appearence. Interestingly, we still tend to allocate "class", intelligence, competence and whole boat load of political inferences through reading facial expression and clothing. It seems to be a survival technique in the sense that potential threat is assessed at a safe distance. Recognising the meaning and sybolism of the appearence of another also defines and reconfirms "status" or, the social grouping that you choose to identify with. Don`t forget, we don`t even understand ourselves yet! Material culture and of course grave goods are important elements of any study but, belief systems and ideologies are areas of study where a wider bandwidth of analyses is needed.Osteology in my view is the only approach in funerary archaeology that leads to factual/inferential data relating to the characteristics of the dead.Everything else in the funerary narrative reflects the behaviour of those who are doing the burying/cremating (and of course the archaeologists excavating).And yes Barnsey! Hope you are well! Extremely tasty cremations sir.Still jealous.