Remembering the Ancestors: Mortuary Practices and Social Memory in Pacific Nicaragua

Abstract

Examination of mortuary practices at Sonzapote and El Rayo provides an opportunity to understand how people in pre-historic Pacific Nicaragua constructed social memory and identity. Interments located on the side of Mound 14 at Sonzapote are dated to the Sapoá period (800-1250 CE), and are the result of post-abandonment mortuary rituals. The association of the dead with monumental architecture and statuary creates a connection between the present and the past, whether those buried on Mound 14 were related to the original inhabitants, or associated with influxes of migrant populations. El Rayo provides an example of how the living interacted with the dead through secondary interment and commingling, and consists of dedicated cemeteries where memories and identities were constructed. This research examines how interment practices represent the creation of social memory and identity at these sites, and how these people related themselves with their dead, past, present, and future.