What's your Status?

Terra Cotta Statues of Emporer Qin Shi Huang

Images:http://www.chinamuseums.com/qinshihuangt.htm

Whenever I think about status I immediately think of the thousands of life-size terra cotta statues (above) that were discovered buried near the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang in China dating to around 210 B.C. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army).  If I were the person that uncovered these amazing figures,  I would think about all the manual labour and time that were put into building these statues and I would interpret that they were built for a person who had power, prestige, and "high status".

So what is status?  I would define status as a person's position and role in society.  I feel that people often describe a person's status in terms of his or her wealth and power; however, a person can have several statuses at once and they can change during a person's lifetime. For example, I think my status now might include that I am unmarried, young,  a woman, a student, and poor.  My status will (hopefully) change during my life.  Who knows, by the time I die maybe I will have married a rich prince and I will become a member of the royal family.  If so, what is my status? People might assign me these statuses: old, married, a mother, wealthy, and elite. People would look at my status at the time of my death and interpret these things with no consideration of the roles that I played earlier in my life.

So how do archaeologists interpret a person's status? Status is usually interpreted based on materials associated with a burial, such as grave goods, tombstones, and the burial itself. Was the person buried with rare and valuable items? In our society, this might include diamonds and gold. What material was used to build the tombstone? In our society, a marble tombstone would hold more prestige than a tombstone made of cement.  What is the size of the burial? A 50' tall burial mound that covers an area larger than my backyard would probably be interpreted as belonging to someone with higher status than the person buried in the 2' x 6' hole in the ground. But what status are we looking at?  It seems we tend to focus on a person's wealth and power.  What if I die a poor student but my family and friends have nothing better to do with their time than build me a burial mound the size of a football field? That could confuse interpretations.

In Parker Pearson's book, The Archaeology of Death and Burial, he raises some good points about the trouble with interpreting status.  First of all, he points out that it can be hard to interpret the meaning behind value (1999, p.79). It is one thing to be able to recognize that a grave good or a certain material has value in a society but it is harder to know exactly what this value is.  If people discover me buried with diamonds, is this because I am part of the royal family or because I have special healing powers?  Also, it can be hard to know if the items associated with a burial are representing the dead person's status or the status of the people that buried him or her. I enjoy this quote that Parker Pearson mentions: "If graves are in any way an index of social status it is the social status of the funeral organizers as much as the social status of the deceased that is involved" (Leach 1979, p.122 as cited in Parker Pearson 1999, p.84). I think this is very true. The friends and family of a deceased person have the final say in how that person is buried and they even have the option to go against their wishes.  So if the family and friends of a person have different beliefs or have a different idea of the deceased's status, then this view is more likely to be represented than the deceased individual's view.  Finally, I thought Parker Pearson introduced a good point when he discussed the example of the Tandroy who burn the polluted possessions of the dead person in his or her house (p.85).  In this case, there might be no grave goods buried with the body so little evidence of status would be left behind or maybe the person would be buried with gift items from mourners. This reminded me that people's beliefs regarding death strongly affect how they are represented in death.

 I think our society today recognizes several status symbols, mostly in relation to a person's wealth. These include items like specific brands of cars, computers, and clothes. However, status symbols that we recognize as high status today will change over time just as they have changed in different cultures over thousands of years.

I think that interpreting a person's status can be difficult because the concept of status is fluid and hard to define in the first place.  Especially because a person's status can change over time and one person can have multiple statuses that intertwine and present themselves in different ways.

So, what's your status?



References:
Parker Pearson, M. 1999. The archaeology of death and burial. Sutton: Stroud.