ABSTRACT
The ultimate goal of the La Ciudad mortuary analysis was to make statements about the nature of Hohokam social organization at that community and, by extension, of the Colonial and Sedentary periods in general. The analysis of the Ciudad burials did not find many patterns between the grave lots and other characteristics of the burials, such as treatment of the body, gender, age, location, loci and phase. Inhumations have always appeared anomalous in Colonial and Sedentary period Hohokam sites because of the preponderance of cremation burial. The grave lots with juvenile cremations included both a large number and greater variety of items than the infants, but less than the sub-adults. The affluence of sub-adult cremations appears to have been a Sacaton Phase phenomenon. The cremation rite itself must have been a public event at La Ciudad and other contemporary Hohokam sites. The cremation ritual would have resolved the crises to the social order caused by death.
