Caring beyond Kinship: Exploring Non-biological Relatedness and Childcare in Burial Contexts across Disciplines

Abstract

Kinship in archaeology has often been understood through a narrow biological lens, privileging genetic relatedness and the nuclear family as the primary unit of social organization. Yet anthropological and ethnographic studies demonstrate that care and child-rearing are widely shared practices that extend beyond parents, involving kin and non-kin alike. This article explores how such forms of cooperative childcare, particularly alloparenting, can be recognized in prehistoric burial contexts. By integrating archaeological, genetic, isotopic and osteological evidence, it argues for a broader interpretation of adult–child co-burials, moving beyond the assumption of direct biological parenthood. A series of Iberian case studies illustrates both the potential and the challenges of detecting fostering, non-parental care and the social significance of children in mortuary practices. Finally, the article introduces the SKIN: Social Kinship and Cooperative Care project, which applies a multi-disciplinary framework to investigate how women and children buried together in Iberia’s later prehistory reveal the diversity of social bonds that shaped communities.