Les crémations préhistoriques : apport de l’Anthropologie sociale à l’Archéologie de la mort
Résumé
Ethnological data’s are largely used to restitute the way a cadaver is burnt on a pyre. On the contrary ethnographical studies are exploited used, in France, to interpret the evidence of cremation on prehistoric archaeological sites whereas ethnology is a component of the archaeological Anglo-Saxon academic tradition.
Ethnological literature shows the diversity of funerary customs in which cremation is used and the various ways of treating the burned bones afterwards. We also pointed out that when cremation is quite exclusive there are always some people for which it should be avoided. When burial is the dominant form of funerary treatment, cremation may be an alternative either for higher social status individuals or for traveling a corpse more easily or because the soul of the decease is dangerous.
This characterization of cremation by the ethnological data’s enables us to propose some interpretation of cases from the Neolithic archeological records.