Patterns of Faunal Utilization and Sociopolitical Organization at the Mississippian Period Kincaid Mounds Site

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-179
Author(s):  
Meghan E. Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Faunal Utilization

Social Change in the Woodland-Mississippian Transition: A Study of Household and Community Patterns in the American Bottom

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Peregrine
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Community Patterns ◽  
American Bottom ◽  
Mississippian Period

The nature of social change during the Woodland-Mississippian transition in the central Midwest has been a contended question for some time. Because settlement pattern data can be used to infer sociopolitical organization in archaeological contexts, changes in household and community patterns in the American Bottom are used to infer the nature of social and political alterations from the Middle Woodland to the Mississippian period. It appears from the settlement data that a general trend towards smaller and more autonomous family units characterizes social change during the Woodland-Mississippian transition.

The Sociopolitical Economy of an Ancient Maya Village: Cerén and its Sacbe

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payson Sheets ◽  
Christine Dixon ◽  
David Lentz ◽  
Rachel Egan ◽  
Alexandria Halmbacher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Household Archaeology ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
The Village

The intellectual, artistic, and architectural accomplishments of Maya elites during the Classic period were extraordinary, and evidence of elite activities has preserved well in the archaeological record. A centuries-long research focus on elites has understandably fostered the view that they controlled the economy, politics, and religion of Maya civilization. While there has been significant progress in household archaeology, unfortunately the activities, decisions, and interactions of commoners generally preserve poorly in the archaeological record. Therefore, it has been challenging to understand the sociopolitical economy of commoners, and how it related—or did not relate—to elite authority. The exceptional volcanic preservation of the site of Cerén, El Salvador, provides a unique opportunity to explore the degree to which elites controlled or influenced commoner life. Was society organized in a top-down hierarchy in which elites controlled everything? Or did commoners have autonomy, and thus the authority to decide quotidian, seasonal, and annual issues within the village? Or was there a mixture of different loci of authority within the village and the region? Research at Cerén is beginning to shed some light on the sociopolitical economy within the community and in relation to elites in the Zapotitan valley. A domain in which there was considerable commoner-elite interaction in the Cerén area was the marketplace. Elites and their attached specialists provided products, and commoners decided which marketplace they would attend to exchange their items. Evidence from Cerén also suggests that there were numerous other domains of authority within the community that had no detectable control or influence from outside. For instance, people in the village decided what crafts or specialized agricultural products to produce as surplus to be exchanged within the community for different products from other households. Cerén community members acted independently as individuals, as households, or in other domains within the community. Understanding the multiple layers of authority at Cerén sheds light on the sociopolitical organization in one non-elite Classic period Maya community.

Congenital Deformities and the Olmec Were-Jaguar Motif

1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 861-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carson N. Murdy
Keyword(s):  
Neural Tube ◽  
Neural Tube Defects ◽  
Adult Male ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
American Art ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Stylistic Variation ◽  
Widespread Distribution ◽  
Congenital Deformities ◽  
Art Style

Although previous studies of Olmec iconography have correctly recognized the importance of the jaguar element and its conceptual origins in the shaman-jaguar transformation complex of beliefs, they have not explained why the Olmec expression of feline features should be different from their expression in other prehistoric American art styles sharing origins in the same complex of beliefs, nor why the Olmec chose to express them in the form of an infant were-jaguar, often held in the arms of a seated adult male. It is here suggested that the majority of the attributes of the were-jaguar motif can best be explained by analogy with the congenital deformities manifested in and associated with multifactorial neural tube defects. The apparent fusion of the portrayal of these defects with the portrayal of feline elements suggests that the art style and religious beliefs were being manipulated for political reasons, which would be most likely in a chiefdom form of sociopolitical organization. Reasons for stylistic variation in the portrayal of the were-jaguar and its widespread distribution are discussed.

1st Unnamed Cave: a Mississippian period cave art site in east Tennessee, USA

Antiquity ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (270) ◽  
pp. 774-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Faulkner ◽  
Jan F. Simek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soft Materials ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Special Group ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
East Tennessee ◽  
Cave Art

The well-protected walls and floors of deep caves are some of the few places where human markings on soft materials — sands, muds, clays — survive archaeologically. Since 1979, a special group of caves in the eastern United States has been reported with ‘mud-glyphs’ or prehistoric drawings etched in wet mud. Here, the seventh of these mud-glyph caves is described; once again, its iconography connects it to the ‘Southern Cult’ or ‘Southeast Ceremonial Complex’ of the Mississippian period.

The Akha, “Rife with Feasts”

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Political Structure ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Internal Dynamics ◽  
Surplus Production ◽  
Hill Tribe ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Hill

The Akha constitute the relatively poor end of the hill tribe spectrum, but they have a wide range of feasts that employ the available surplus production. This chapter shows how Akha feasts support the economic, ritual, and sociopolitical organization of communities. The role of taboos as aggrandizer strategies is explored and the internal dynamics of the ritual-political structure of villages is examined. Examples of the range of Akha feasts are described and explanations provided in terms of how they dovetail with various levels of sociopolitical groups, including household, clan, administrative, and village levels, but especially lineages. The important issue of why some households do not participate in feasts is raised. Material patterning of feasts is again discussed.

An Ethnoarchaeological Interpretation of the Salt Life, A.D. 1200

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley A. Dumas
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Salt Production ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Cultural Ideals ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
The World ◽  
Ethnographic Data

This chapter narratively reconstructs the salt-making process in the Mississippian period using archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic data and information. The author proposes that salt was an everyday substance for many prehistoric southeastern peoples. Her claim is grounded in biological, archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic evidence from cultures around the world who maintain that salt was important to many ancient peoples for their physical, spiritual, and social well-being. The author argues that her narrative approach, as with any useful interpretive tool, is based on data from excavations and analysis of artifacts, and that it unites cultural ideals about family, religion, housing, subsistence, reproduction, and other elements of daily life that are embedded within not only salt production and consumption but also many other practices.

Monumental Landscapes, Changing Ideologies, and Political Histories in the Mopan Valley

2020 ◽  
pp. 290-312
Author(s):  
M. Kathryn Brown ◽  
Jason Yaeger
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Key Sites ◽  
Divine Kingship

In Chapter 14, Brown and Yaeger discuss the sociopolitical organization of several key sites in the Mopan Valley from the early Middle Preclassic through the end of the Late Classic period. Through an examination of monumental architecture, public art, and ritual practices, the authors describe the political development over this 1,600-year period beginning with Early Xunantunich, the first major political center beginning in the early Middle Preclassic, to the latest, Classic Xunantunich, which was abandoned in the 9th century. The centers of Actuncan and Buenavista del Cayo filled a vacuum in the valley in the intervening centuries, playing major roles on the political landscape during the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods, respectively. The authors trace how political authority and ideology became more centralized and the institutions of divine kingship developed as each center succeeded one another. It is clear from the data presented in this chapter that monumental constructions are at the forefront of our understanding of the development of the political landscape in the Mopan Valley, a landscape where ritual and religion played key roles in the rise of complexity.

Reconfiguring Regional Interactions in the Face of Cahokian Decline

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan E. Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Interaction Model ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Field Site ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Common ◽  
Third Dimension ◽  
Common Field

The early Mississippian Period in the midwestern United States was a time of great religious, social, economic, and political change. Several models and theories have been proposed for understanding changes in regional interactions associated with the rise of Cahokia, the largest Mississippian city. However, the later dissolution of Cahokia and other Mississippian centers during the twelfth through fourteenth centuries and their impacts on regional interactions are poorly understood. This chapter assesses the utility of the Cross-Cultural Interaction Model for Mississippian Period during the late twelfth through fourteenth centuries in the Midwest. Additionally, this chapter proposes the addition of a third dimension to the model in order to account for indigenous ontological perspectives with regard to entanglements between political reorganization and cosmological realms. Particular attention is given to the Common Field site, a political and religious center located in a region that had been sparsely populated prior to AD 1200.

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