Maritime Ritual Economies of Cosmic Synchronicity: Summer Solstice Events at a Civic-Ceremonial Center on the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida

Places such as Poverty Point, Mound City, and Chaco Canyon remind us that the siting of ritual infrastructure in ancient North America was a matter of cosmological precedent. The cosmic gravity of these places gathered persons periodically in numbers that challenged routine production. Ritual economies intensified, but beyond the material demands of hosting people, the siting of these places and the timing of gatherings were cosmic work that preconfigured these outcomes. A first millennium AD civic-ceremonial center on the northern Gulf Coast of Florida illustrates the rationale for holding feasts on the end of a parabolic dune that it shared with an existing mortuary facility. Archaeofauna from large pits at Shell Mound support the inference that feasts were timed to summer solstices. Gatherings were large, judging from the infrastructure in support of feasts and efforts to intensify production through oyster mariculture and the construction of a large tidal fish trap. The 250-year history of summer solstice feasts at Shell Mound reinforces the premise that ritual economies were not simply the amplification of routine production. It also suggests that the ecological potential for intensification was secondary to the cosmic significance of solstice-oriented dunes and their connection to mortuary and world-renewal ceremonialism.

Routine Production: Publishing Qianlong’s Poetry Collections

Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799, r. 1735-1795) published his imperial poetry collections at regular intervals during his reign. This article reconstructs the gradual process of routinization of these activities through a close reading of the collections’ prefaces and postscripts. Understanding this process helps us to understand the subtlety of the intra-court communications between Qianlong and his officials, which contextualizes how Qianlong’s intent was delivered, received, and actualized in courtly practice. This routinization process also had a certain influence upon Qianlong and his successors, and suggests a possible reason behind Qianlong’s large poetry production. L’empereur Qianlong (1711-1799, r. 1735-1795) a publié régulièrement au cours de son règne des collections de ses poèmes. Se fondant sur une étude des préfaces et postfaces de ces collections, cet article reconstruit le processus qui a mené progressivement à établir des procédures routinières en vue de telles publications. Ce processus nous permet de mieux saisir la complexité des communications au sein de la Cour entre Qianlong et ses hauts fonctionnaires, et de contextualiser les manières dont les projets de l’empereur étaient exprimés, compris et mis en œuvre au sein de la Cour. Une telle routinisation a en retour influencé les pratiques de Qianlong et de ses successeurs, et suggère une raison crédible pour la grande abondance de la production poétique de Qianlong.