| Abstract: |
This study critically reviews theories and techniques of mortuary archaeology to formulate a set of hypotheses regarding social organization, as revealed through gender and status. These hypotheses are tested on a mortuary assemblage of 47 individuals recently excavated from Man Bac, northern Vietnam dated to 3500-4000 BP. This cemetery assemblage straddles the poorly understood Neolithic/Bronze Age boundary. During this period agriculture, trade and craft specialization were beginning to noticeably affect the material culture, health, mortality, settlement patterns and social organization of communities across Southeast Asia. This study forms the first comprehensive mortuary study to be undertaken on prehistoric Vietnamese material. The results of this study suggested that: (1) Man Bac exhibits many mortuary features commonly seen in Southeast Asian Bronze Age sites
(2) Man Bac reveals unique localized aspects which are atypical of the time period and region
(3) both vertical and horizontal differentiation were present, with vertical differentiation being relatively subtle and operating on an individual basis
and (4) age-based differentiation was more strongly expressed than sex-based, or gender-based, differentiation. The primary implications of the these findings which warrant further analysis in the future are questions regarding: (1) the role of the cultural/social persona in determining an individuals status and/or gender during this time
(2) the non-automatic nature of the bestowing of personhood
and (3) the unusual importance of both women and children (above a certain age) in the life of the community. It is anticipated that further excavation, C14 dating, DNA analysis, ceramic vessel residue analysis, and palaeopathological work will build on the findings of this study.
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