| Summary: | This thesis provides a model for understanding how social classes arose in the Gulf of
Georgia area. This model distinguishes how social status in rank and a class societies are
manifested and maintained in non-state, kin-based societies, drawing mainly from
ethnographic descriptions. The relationship between the living and the dead for making
status claims in both rank and class societies makes the archaeological study of mortuary
ritual important for investigating these relationships. I propose that burial mounds and
cairns, which were prominent in the region from 1500 to 1000 years ago, reflect a time when
status differentiation was defined mainly through social rank. Following this period, when
all forms of below-ground burials cease and above-ground graves become the dominant form
of mortuary practice, I propose that the historically recorded pattern of social class emerged.
Archaeological investigations of the burial mounds and cairns at the Scowlitz site have
provided the first fully reported instances of mound and cairn burials in this region. Using
less well reported data from over 150 additional burial mounds and cairns reported from
other sites in the region, evidence for the nature of status differentiation sought out. Patterns
in the burial record are investigated through discussing variation within classes of burials,
demography and deposition, spatial patterning, grave goods, and temporal variation. These
patterns and changes are then discussed within the context of the larger culture history of the
region, suggesting that the late Marpole or Garrison sub-phase may be defined as ending
around 1000 BP with the cessation of below-ground burial practices. The general patterns
observed in mound and cairn burials and the changes in mortuary ritual subsequent to their
being built generally support the idea of a shift from a rank to a class society. The thesis
provides a basis for further investigation of questions of social status and inequality in the
Gulf of Georgia region.
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