Beyond Death: The Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile

by Bernardo T. Arriaza

"Comprehensive study of 282 examples permits classification, description, and interpretation of mummification techniques and of details of health, diet, technology, settlement, and society between 5000 and 1700 BC. Argues that mummification was invented in Arica-Camerones region to insure continuity of life in the context of environmental uncertain.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction

176 pages, Hardcover

First published September 17, 1995

Reviews

[Melisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very detailed and scientific foray into the study of the Chinchorro mummies. I enjoyed the very detailed and clinical discussions about their practices, lifestyles, and society. A good read if you want to learn about these mysterious people.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about a lesser-known example of artificial mummification in ancient times. Along the Chilean coastline near Arica, several resting-places of mummies by a pre-contact tribe have been unearthed, often due to construction projects. Carbon-dating has verified the oldest artificial mummies as dating from 5050 BC, while naturally-produced mummies in the area date back even farther, to 7000 BC or before. This means that the indigenous peoples of Chile were practicing elaborate embalming procedures at least 2000 years before the more-famous Egyptian culture (indeed, before the beginning of the world, as dated by some biblical literalists). This book was an attempt to synthesize all of the study at the time (1995) of those mummies to attempt to understand the culture that produced them.

It is interesting, but also demonstrates the limits of anthropological and archaeological analysis. The only evidence of this culture is the bodies of these mummies, and the few tools and scraps of clothing that were buried with them. Hence, much of the speculation about them surrounds their health problems (which can be determined by autopsies of the mummies) and their funerary practices. That’s certainly interesting, but it doesn’t give any kind of complete picture of an ancient society. They were apparently non-literate (at least no examples of writing by them have survived and been identified), so even ideas about their death-rituals are arrived at deductively, based on observations of other sedentary, pre-literate societies.

None of which is to undermine the value of the study of these mummies, which may offer clues to some of the earliest known human communities, it is simply to remind readers not to expect too much. The book ends with a plea for more methodical searches for new mummies and evidence, although so far as I can tell, this book remains the definitive study of all existing mummies, and little has been done since then, except to expand on this starting-point.

[C.E.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 estrellas