This text comprises a critical discussion of assemblage theory and its application to burial studies. In recent research, burials have been viewed as fluid and indeterminate assemblages that ‘become’ in varied ways depending on different perceptions (concepts and ideas) and apparatuses (e.g. excavation tools and measuring instruments). The past and the present are thus mixed in potentially ever-new configurations which run the risk of replacing epistemological relativism with ontological fluidity. It is argued here that the hypothetical mutability of burial assemblages can be reduced significantly by addressing the varying speed and degree of the involved processes of integration and disintegration. By doing this, the main focus is shifted to the animacy of such processes and how they may have been understood and utilized in burials. Using both general and specific examples, it is argued that cremation burials can be studied as carefully compiled amalgamations that utilize the properties and animacies of different materialities to deal with death, corpses and the afterlife.

中文翻译：

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成为死者：作为生命装置的埋葬组合

本书对组合理论及其在墓葬研究中的应用进行了批判性讨论。在最近的研究中，墓葬被视为流动的和不确定的组合，根据不同的感知（概念和想法）和设备（例如挖掘工具和测量仪器）以不同的方式“变成”。因此，过去和现在混合在潜在的新配置中，这些配置冒着用本体论的流动性取代认识论相对主义的风险。这里有人认为，通过解决所涉及的整合和解体过程的不同速度和程度，可以显着降低墓葬组合的假设可变性。通过这样做，主要焦点转移到这些过程的活力以及它们如何在墓葬中被理解和利用。