Considering their apparently unique characteristics and restricted regional distribution, Maraca mortuary practices could seem, at first glance, like an isolated development during the final moment of Amazonian occupation before the European invasion. However, closer inspection shows that seated anthropomorphic funerary urns are not restricted to the lower Amazon. They have been reported in places as far away as Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela suggesting that the cultural practice was wide spread (Meggers 1957; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1997). According to Fausto (2000), immediately before the European invasion, the Amerindian social systems of South America were highly interconnected, both locally and regionally, as participants in a vast commercial networks that united regions and peoples from distant places, and facilitated the circulation and diffusion of ideas, customs, people, and objects.
In a more local context Maraca is just one of a series of cultural traditions that flourished in the lower Amazon between the beginning of the second millennium AD and
European colonization, including the Marajoara, Ariste, and Mazagao. One institution these cultures have in common is mortuary, the practice of placing disarticulated bones in anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, or simple ceramic funerary urns. The locations of cemeteries were diverse with some cultures burying the urns and others displaying them on the surface. Indeed, variation in Amazonian funerary practices, as well as their social and ideological significance, merit further studies, including research in the Maraca region to look for others types of funerary practices.
Study of funerary activities can tell us about the complex beliefs regarding death in Amazonian societies. The discussion of funeral practices in lowland South America has been a somewhat polemic issue. Chaumeil (1997) claims that while most recent studies corroborate the existence of complex funerary practices, some important works insist that relatively simple practices predominated. According to this argument, in contrast to the Andean world, Amazonian mortuary tradition was marked by the absence of a cult of the dead, lack of formally defined cemeteries, short genealogical memory, taboo against using the names of the dead, and institutionalized forgetfulness - not memory - of deceased ancestors. Compensation for such disinterest and lack of visible funerary practices was reported to be the development of complex metaphysical ideas about death.
Examining this issue, Chaumeil (1997) questions the validity of simple affirmations arguing that there is no set pattern of funerary treatments in the vast Amazonian region. Even in one group it is rare to find a uniform treatment for all the dead. According to him, most of the cultures he studied combined various types of funeral practices. Consequently, arguments for radical discontinuity between the living and the dead, as well as arguments affirming simplicity in Amazonian funerary rituals, that emphasize an Amazon/Andes dichotomy, must not be accepted uncritically. To the contrary, Chaumeil observes many reciprocal influences among funeral practices and attitudes about the dead between the Amazon and Andean regions.
There are two basic questions, according to Chaumeil (1997). The first regards the degree of complexity of funerals in the lowlands and the second considers how the dead are remembered. Are the dead remembered as individuals to be converted into ancestors, or as anonymous members of a collective “community of the dead”? It is likely that both forms of memory existed, with the individuals who were transformed into ancestors belonging to a specific group whose social differentiation had already been established in life.
Although we have not encountered any evidence for other types of funerals in the Maraca region, it is still too early to determine whether the funeral treatment described here was given to everyone. Further research may show that these cemeteries were reserved for a restricted set of people destined to become ancestors, as argued by Chaumeil. Such individuals may have been prominent social figures, such as great warriors or shamans (Chaumeil 1992 cited in Chaumeil 1997). Therefore, we should consider the possibility that Maraca urns, together with those from Marajo, Ariste, and Mazagao, reveal prehistoric Amazonian ancestor cults (Guapindaia 2000, 2001; Schaan 2003).
The appearance of a Maraca cemetery—seeing the “individuals” seated erect upon their benches—is striking. Even with most of the urns destroyed, visitors are impressed by the place. When the Maraca cemetery was intact, with all of its urns beautifully painted and arranged in their original places, it would have elicited feelings of awe, reverence, and respect. The scene reminds one of a solemn meeting with the members participating in a ceremony or deciding important questions for the community (McE-wan 2001). Whatever their specific beliefs may have been, the funeral treatments of the Maraca people were designed to last, and indeed, they have withstood the ravages of time to speak to us about their past.
Prehistoric Funeral Practices in the Brazilian Amazon Acknowledgments This chapter was translated by Morgan Schmidt.
World History
