Age profiles of cemetery and residential burials in the Early Formative Oaxaca Valley, Mexico

The analysis of residential burials in Early Formative Oaxaca allows researchers to understand how both funerary and domestic contexts can be studied in relation to one another. We compare the age profiles of individuals selected for residential burials with those selected for burial in a cemetery during the Early Formative period. Demographic modelling provides insight into the criteria people used when determining who was eligible for burial in each mortuary context. Burial in cemeteries was restricted to adults, while people of all ages were buried in residences. The use of age as a criteria to exclude or include people has implications for the creation and maintenance of community-level and household-level identity. While mortuary rituals in households were inclusive of all ages, only a small percentage of people were chosen for burial. These demographic differences grant us further insight into the identities emphasized in cemetery vs. domestic mortuary rites.