Elemental bodies: the nature of transformative practices during the late third and second millennium bc in Scotland

Author: MacGregor, Gavin

Source: World Archaeology, Volume 40, Number 2, June 2008 , pp. 268-280(13)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

A range of social practices during the late third and second millennium bc in Scotland is explored in this paper. The nature of the elemental is also considered and it is suggested that certain practices may have been conceived as elementally transformative in nature due to their perceived ability to effect material changes. The interrelationship between practices in the context of contemporary mortuary and funerary and burnt-mound traditions is examined using a case study from south-west Scotland. The traditional views of what these practices constituted are founded on contemporary terms of reference, such as their function as burial monuments or as locales for cooking. Here, consideration of the evidence suggests that in these different social arenas such practices were in part understood through the ways in which the body was transformed and, in certain circumstances, conceived to be as transformatively potent as other elemental categories.

Keywords: Scotland; elemental categories; transformative practices; burnt mound; human remains

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438240802076756

Affiliations: 1: GUARD, University of Glasgow,

Publication date: 2008-06-01

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