Mummies Day for UNLV professor

Anne Hosier

Monday, Jan. 26, 1998 | 9:11 a.m.

Should a society be judged by its material possessions or technology?

Bernardo Arriaza, an associate professor of physical anthropology at UNLV, doesn't think so.

For more than a decade, Arriaza has been studying the Chinchorros, an ancient group of fishermen who lived along the dry barren coast of Chile more than 7,000 years ago. They had no woven cloth or ceramics, no written language, and dwelled in simple huts. Yet they practiced elaborate burial rituals and took meticulous measures to preserve their dead -- signs that they possessed a well-developed belief system.

The Chinchorros' method of artificial mummification is the oldest in the world, predating that of ancient Egypt by thousands of years.

"The simplicity of cultural artifacts does not imply a simplicity of their lives or of their thinking," Arriaza says. "We need to look at the Chinchorro as a group that has very complex rituals."

Arriza recently returned from his native Chile, where he spent 10 days with a film crew, surveying the area by helicopter and filming his excavation site and laboratory for a segment in a "National Geographic" documentary on mummies. The National Geographic Society has helped fund Arriaza's work during the past 10 years.

The special will likely air on NBC later this year, Arriaza says. "It was a lot of work, no question about it -- getting up early, staying up late. But it was a lot of fun."

The crew shot 13 hours of real tape but only 5 or 10 minutes of it will actually be used in the documentary, Arriaza says. "That tells you something about the quality of their work."

The final segment will include scenes from the daily lives of the fishermen, re-enacted by local actors. Many were contained in Arriaza's book, "Beyond Death: the Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile," (Smithsonian Institution Press; 1995). "I was really happy that they used some of my ideas in the book to do the re-creations."

The Chinchorros lived on the rugged coasts alongside the freshwater streams that cascaded down from the Andes Mountains toward the Pacific Ocean. Because water and food were abundant and close at hand -- the sea was brimming with flounder, mussels, crab and sea lions -- they had a considerable amount of spare time. When they weren't whittling hooks from gleaming chunks of mother-of-pearl or gathering reeds to make mats and baskets, they spent endless hours preparing their dead for burial.

Unlike the Egyptians, who mummified only the wealthy or powerful members of society, the Chinchorros extended this honor to all, even small children and fetuses. "It was a more egalitarian society where burial itself ... was an act of love," Arriaza says. "What we're seeing is more acts of affection, love and caring for people, rather than social position."

The bodies were carefully cleaned and eviscerated, then packed with straw or clay and reconstructed using sticks and rope. A clay mask was formed over the face, often depicting a life-like expression, and a wig was attached to the scalp.

Arriaza thinks these preparations reflect the Chinchorros' belief in an afterlife. "We tend to see death as an ending, but (the Chinchorros and others) see it as a cycle or passage."

Although the Chinchorro mummies were first discovered in 1917 by a German archaeologist, few people, outside of a circle of academics, had ever heard of them before Arriaza began studying them. At the time, archaeologists were more preoccupied with exploring the material trappings of the culture.

"When we study material culture we tend to overemphasize (the material aspects), because we're kind of mesmerized by the tools and the artifacts," Arriaza says. But when you find the mummies themselves, you say 'Oh, here are the makers, here are the people who are it making the artifacts.' "

Arriaza's 1995 National Geographic article spurred international interest in the mummies -- he hopes the documentary will build on that. "I'm very interested in trying to 'bring the Chinchorros back to life,' " he says.

"I'd like to see a more human aspect in archaeology."