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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