عنوان

Kinship and Religious Identities in Medieval Central Asia (8 th-13th c. CE): Tracing Communities of Mortuary Practice and Biological Affinity

TL49869

انگلیسی

Kinship and Religious Identities in Medieval Central Asia (8 th-13th c. CE): Tracing Communities of Mortuary Practice and Biological Affinity

[Thesis]

Elissa Anne  Bullion

Frachetti, Michael D.

Washington University in St. Louis

2018

257

Committee members: Allen, Kari; Baitzel, Sarah; Kidder, Tristram R.; Trinkaus, Erik; Yucesoy, Hayrettin

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-0-355-86735-0

Ph.D.

Anthropology

Washington University in St. Louis

2018

Ethnic, political, and religious upheaval has cascading impacts on social identity. Kinship and religious ritual are two sources of social identity that are particularly salient in periods of change. Their practice provides access to and protection of important social, economic, and ideological resources that help groups negotiate times of uncertainty. During the medieval period (8th-13th c. CE), Central Asia saw the invasion of Arab armies, the rise of Turkic political dynasties, and the spread of Islam. This period yielded a Turko-Islamic culture that pervades modern dialogues on Central Asian history and culture. The local and regional social systems that sustained the spread of ethnic and religious identities during the medieval period, however, remain poorly understood. This dissertation investigates mortuary ritual and biological affinity in medieval (8th-13th century) Central Asian populations to document the practice of social identity across diverse populations during this period of dramatic change. This thesis represents the first comprehensive bioarchaeological study of medieval Central Asian populations. Mortuary and cranial shape data were obtained from nineteen sites dating between the 7th and 14th c. CE located in modern-day Uzbekistan. Data collection was comprised of three years of research at the archives and osteological collections of the Institute of Samarkand and cemetery excavations at the site of Tashbulak in southeastern Uzbekistan. In this study, I analyze spatial organization, architecture, and body treatment in burials, as well as geometric morphometric analysis of three-dimensional cranial landmark data. I interpret my results as reflecting kinship and mortuary communities-of-practice and examine how these social identity practices reflect or refute previous historical narratives about ethnic and religious identity.

Archaeology; Physical anthropology; Asian History

Social sciences;Bioarchaeology;Biological distance;Central Asia;Islamic archaeology;Mortuary ritual

Tabrizi, Sirous

Frachetti, Michael D.

Anthropology

Washington University in St. Louis

2036863743; 10808054

p

[Thesis]

276903

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