Mummification of the human body as a vector of social link: The case of Faténaoué (New Caledonia)

Abstract

This chapter details mummified bodies that were seated in braided baskets and displayed at the opening of a small rock shelter, on top of a karstic peak dominating an old village situated in the Faténaoué Valley (Témala-Voh, New Caledonia). These bodies call attention to a characteristic of Kanak, and more generally Melanesian, societies: the need for an extended physical connection with ancestors. This trait is exemplified by the burial practices of Ndani (Irian Jaya, Indonesia), Buang and Anga (Papua New Guinea) societies in the present day (Beckett and Nelson 2015; Vial 1936), as well as in the societies of the Torres Strait during the 19th century (Pretty 1969). Over the nearly 3000 years of its prehistoric and traditional Kanak history, the New Caledonia archipelago has seen the development of an exceptional diversity of burial traditions (Sand et al. 2003, 2008). While archaeological studies can identify differences between time periods, there is also clear regional variability in burial practices, body treatments and status-dependent mortuary rituals between contemporaneous communities and chiefdoms (Valentin and Sand 2001, 2008).