عنوان

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

Number

TL49869

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

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

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Elissa Anne  Bullion

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Frachetti, Michael D.

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Washington University in St. Louis

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2018

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

257

Text of Note

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

Text of Note

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

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Discipline of degree

Anthropology

Body granting the degree

Washington University in St. Louis

Text preceding or following the note

2018

Text of Note

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

Subject Term

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

Tabrizi, Sirous

Frachetti, Michael D.

Subdivision

Anthropology

Washington University in St. Louis

Call Number

2036863743; 10808054

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y