Childhood and Identity Acquisition in the Late Prehispanic Ónavas Valley, Sonora, Mexico

Abstract

Identity acquisition is a lifelong process that begins prior to birth (passive), becomes more active with self-awareness, and continues throughout the enculturation process. We argue that in childhood, as a liminal period of the life course, individuals are subject to a combination of active and passive forces of identity acquisition, largely determined first by family/parental decisions, then by community decisions as part of the enculturation process. We test this idea by reconstructing episodes of identity acquisition across social age categories in a late prehispanic (AD 900–1300) skeletal sample from the site of El Cementerio from north-west Mexico, which represents the central community of a settlement system in the valley of Ónavas, Sonora, Mexico. Artificial cranial modification, dental modification, and the placement of funerary objects reflect intersecting identities and provide clues to social age and identity acquisition within the community.