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UCSC ANTH 176A - The Mississippian Climax

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Anth 176A: North American ArchaeologyProf. Judith Habicht MaucheSpring 2009UCSC1The Eastern Woodlands IV:The Mississippian ClimaxNorth American ArchaeologyLecture 23Spring 2009UCSCMississippian Tradition A.D. 700-1540 Core Area: Mid-SouthSubsistence Intensive maizeagriculture Maize de Ocho (AD 900) Beans (AD 1000-1200) Deer: depleted?; highstatus More emphasis on fishand waterfowl (50% ofprotein)More productive, but more risky--more famine and shortagesAnth 176A: North American ArchaeologyProf. Judith Habicht MaucheSpring 2009UCSC2 Increasing sedentism BottomlandEnvironments--rich,but circumscribed Competition forincreasingly limitedresources Carneiro’s Model forDevelopment ofComplex Societies(Warfare and Tribute)Settlement Pattern Farmsteads andHamlets Population mostlyrural and dispersedReligious/Administrative Centers “Sacred precincts”--Palisades Elite residences and burials Flat-top mounds PlazasAnth 176A: North American ArchaeologyProf. Judith Habicht MaucheSpring 2009UCSC3 Mounds-- “Earth Islands”--metaphor forquadripartite division of the cosmos Platform for elite residences, charnel houses,temples Elite burials in mounds associated with highstatus objects; retainer/captive sacrificesMajor Centers Cahokia (East St. Louis) Etowah (Georgia) Moundville (Alabama) Spiro (Oklahoma) Kincaid (Kentucky) Huge Sites Religious, administrative, economic centers Home of Elite Supported by large dependent rural population (smallfarmsteads and hamlets)Anth 176A: North American ArchaeologyProf. Judith Habicht MaucheSpring 2009UCSC4 Declared a World Heritage Site, 1982 100 platform and conical mounds 200 acre central plaza 20,000 residents in city at its peak City covered 6 mi, 1100-1200 ADCahokia: City laid out along grid pattern Clusters of house compounds around moundcomplexes--corporate kin groups? Specific crafts concentrated in specific neighborhoodsDowntown CahokiaAnth 176A: North American ArchaeologyProf. Judith Habicht MaucheSpring 2009UCSC5Monk’s Mound Largest man-made structure in North America 100 ft high; 16 acres; 22 million cubic ft of soil Built in 13 incrementsMound 72 Central elite male burials Retainer sacrifice or ritualizedhuman sacrifice Re-enacting Red-Horn originmyth (Falcon Priests)??Regional Settlement Hierarchy American Bottoms I-270 Project (1970s) Secondary Mound-PlazaSites Mitchell (N) Pulcher (S) St. Loius and Metro (E) Tertiary Mound Sites Rural Hinterland**Regional centers undercontrol of Cahokia**Three-tier settlement systemoften associated withemergence of statesAnth 176A: North American ArchaeologyProf. Judith Habicht MaucheSpring 2009UCSC6Nature of Power and Rulership Chiefs as Warlords(Carneiro) Resourcecircumscription Warfare Tribute Corvee Labor Chiefs as Managers Entrepreneurialcontrol of agriculturalproduction and longdistance trade Tribute, feasting,redistribution Buffers uncertainty--system servingbehaviorMill Creek Flint Hoe Chiefs as Politicians Build alliances andloyalty throughfeasting, generosity,and redistributionAnth 176A: North American ArchaeologyProf. Judith Habicht MaucheSpring 2009UCSC7 Chiefs as High Priests Masters of the forces ofthe supernatural andinterceders w/ theancestorsReligion and Cosmology Southern Cult/SECeremonial Complex Assoc. w/ high statusburials Cult of Warrior/Priest/God/Kings Set themes and stylizedmotifs Life-death; war-fertility Reflects earlier Woodlandmotifs, plus themes w/Mesoamerican connections Snakes, long-nose god,masked figures, etc. Iconography combinesmultiple, inter-relatedand cross-cutting ritualpractices and themes Warrior Cults (Chiefs) Fertility Cults (Community) Ancestor Cults (Lineages) Religious practicesreflect tensions andconflicting interests ofdifferent social groupsAnth 176A: North American ArchaeologyProf. Judith Habicht MaucheSpring 2009UCSC8Mississippian Decline 16th c.--scale andcomplexity ofMississsippian Societybegan to decline Environmental change? Endemic political stress? Intro of Euro Diseases? Replaced by historictribal confederacies(Creek, Choctaw,Cherokee) 19th c. forced removal Source of the Myth of theMoundbuildersContinuing Role of NAArchaeologyTo help recapture some of that lost historyTo bring a greater appreciation of the richness, diversityand depth of the Native American ExperienceTo show that it is far more complex than our commonnational stereotypes – even those which are well-meaning, sympathetic and politically


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