1Residential Burial in Global Perspective

While the study and interpretation of mortuary practices have long been important parts of archaeological anal-yses, rarely has residential burial – the practice of burying the deceased in and around houses – been a specific focus of investigation. Here, we examine some of the global contexts in which residential burial has occurred and discuss the different ways that archaeologists have interpreted residential burial. Though practices vary in time, place, and context, the presence of burials in residential settings compels archaeologists to carefully consider the relationship between the living and the dead and to explore the importance of social memory, social reproduction, relations of power, mortuary ritual, and social landscapes. [burial, ancestors, social reproduction, memory, landscapes] Archaeologists have long considered burials and buriallocation pivotal to the examination of prehistoric so-cial practices. Since early work that considered burials as reflections of prehistoric social orders (e.g., Binford 1971; Renfrew 1973, 1976; Saxe 1970) and as important to the analyses of the social practices of the living (e.g., Flemming 1973), mortuary analyses in archaeology have expanded in scope to explore topics related to social reproduction, socia