Becoming and Descending

Over the course of the discipline, archaeological investigations have toggled between history and process, with the current emphasis being increasingly placed on historical aspects. Rather than seeing this as a choice to make, Cook agrees with those that see both as being necessary to understand the full dimensions of the human problems we investigate. Cook presents a Fort Ancient/Mississippian culture case study that explores various dimensions of this research philosophy. This is followed by a discussion that explores the theoretical toggling that seems to occur more so as studies that emphasize one extreme end of the historical-processual continuum seem to be exhausted.

The Making of Mississippian Tradition

In this volume, Christina Friberg investigates the influence of Cahokia, the largest city of North America’s Mississippian culture between AD 1050 and 1350, on smaller communities throughout the midcontinent. Using evidence from recent excavations at the Audrey-North site in the Lower Illinois River Valley, Friberg examines the cultural give-and-take Audrey inhabitants experienced between new Cahokian customs and old Woodland ways of life. Comparing the architecture, pottery, and lithics uncovered here with data from thirty-five other sites across five different regions, Friberg reveals how the social, economic, and political influence of Cahokia shaped the ways Audrey inhabitants negotiated identities and made new traditions. Friberg’s broad interregional analysis also provides evidence that these diverse groups of people were engaged in a network of interaction and exchange outside Cahokia’s control. The Making of Mississippian Tradition offers a fascinating glimpse into the dynamics of cultural exchange in precolonial settlements, and its detailed reconstruction of Audrey society offers a new, more nuanced interpretation of how and why Mississippian lifeways developed.

Introduction

Cahokia’s role in “Mississippianization”—or the rapid advent of monumental architecture; maize-based subsistence practices; a rich iconography; and social, political, and economic complexity—and its spread or adoption throughout the Midwest and Southeast is intriguing. The question of whether what we see in the archaeological record can be described as an “event” or a “process” drives research into examining cultural change and forces us to critically evaluate what exactly is Mississippian. Recent studies are first recognizing that what we call Mississippian culture is incredibly complex, from individual communities to broad regions whose localized development cannot be overshadowed. Second, researchers acknowledge that change is marked by historic figures, events, places, objects, landscapes, memories, traditions, beliefs, and people. The tangled web of change observed in the archaeological record is further obscured by the temporal and spatial scales of the data. However, creative models and collaborative research are elucidating the variability of Mississippianization from inception, spread, and adoption. The Cahokia site, its rise and fall as an early regional influencer of people both locally and abroad, is an important framework within which to study the development of place, memory, events, cultural traditions, and the last millennia of precontact North America.

Cahokia in Context

At its height between AD 1050 and 1275, the city of Cahokia was the largest settlement of the Mississippian culture, acting as an important trade center and pilgrimage site. While the influence of Cahokian culture on the development of monumental architecture, maize-based subsistence practices, and economic complexity throughout North America is undisputed, new research in this volume reveals a landscape of influence in the regions that had and may not have had a relationship with Cahokia. Contributors find evidence for Cahokia’s hegemony—its social, cultural, ideological, and economic influence—in artifacts, burial practices, and religious iconography uncovered at far-flung sites across the Eastern Woodlands. Case studies include Kincaid in the Ohio River Valley, Schild in the Illinois River Valley, Shiloh in Tennessee, and Aztalan in Wisconsin. These essays also show how, with Cahokia’s abandonment, the diaspora continued via the Mississippi River and extended the culture’s impact southward.

Late Quaternary vegetation, climate, and fire history of the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Plain based on a 30,000-yr multi-proxy record from White Pond, South Carolina, USA

The patterns and drivers of late Quaternary vegetation dynamics in the southeastern United States are poorly understood due to low site density, problematic chronologies, and a paucity of independent paleoclimate proxy records. We present a well-dated (15 accelerator mass spectrometry14C dates) 30,000-yr record from White Pond, South Carolina that consists of high-resolution analyses of fossil pollen, macroscopic charcoal, andSporormiellaspores, and an independent paleotemperature reconstruction based on branched glycerol dialkyl tetraethers. Between 30,000 and 20,000 cal yr BP, openPinus-Piceaforest grew under cold and dry conditions; elevatedQuercusbefore 26,000 cal yr BP, however, suggest warmer conditions in the Southeast before the last glacial maximum, possibly corresponding to regionally warmer conditions associated with Heinrich event H2. Warming between 19,700 and 10,400 cal yr BP was accompanied by a transition from conifer-dominated to mesic hardwood forest.Sporormiellaspores were not detected and charcoal was low during the late glacial period, suggesting megaherbivore grazers and fire were not locally important agents of vegetation change.Pinusreturned to dominance during the Holocene, with step-like increases inPinusat 10,400 and 6400 cal yr BP, while charcoal abundance increased tenfold, likely due to increased biomass burning associated with warmer conditions. Low-intensity surface fires increased after 1200 cal yr BP, possibly related to the establishment of the Mississippian culture in the Southeast.

The Importance of Symmetry in Defining Caddo Relationships

Minich and Price offer insights into the way the Caddo participated in the Mississippian Culture sphere using both semiotics and symmetry analysis of surface designs on 150 ceramic vessels from three sites in the Ouachita and Red River valleys. Symmetry in surface designs persisted over 900 years of occupation in the Southern Caddo area, but the variety and distribution of dominant symmetry types changed over time and space, suggesting a local preference for, and symbolic association with, particular symmetry types. Variety in symmetry types increases through time and correlates with both changes in sociopolitical organization within individual Caddo communities and changes related to larger regional influences. While differences in design structure choice may reflect individual community identity, the overall continuity in form, style, and technique are factors that made Caddo ceramics symbolic of the cohesive nature of the Mississippian cultural tradition as a whole.

Mississippian Processes and Histories

The spread of Mississippian culture throughout much of the Eastern US has long been of interest to archaeologists. Interpretations of this spread have oscillated widely over the development of the discipline between what are generally referred to as historical and processual approaches. This chapter briefly summarizes these approaches and then directly examines some key aspects of each. Integration of mortuary data with biodistance and chemical analyses from human burials with environmental data provides a key to unlock both the processes and histories at play in the development of one area on which Mississippian culture developed. The central argument is that the basic structure of the Fort Ancient village developed in close connection with early interactions with Mississippian migrants. Village origins are linked to a series of general processes and specific historical developments involving exploitation of a particular type of environmental niche, reuse of ancient monuments, and referencing mythic Mississippian events. The basic conclusion is that it is much better to seek a model that incorporates elements of both culture process and culture history if we are to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the past.

Evaluating Cahokian Contact and Mississippian Identity Politics in the Late Prehistoric Central Illinois River Valley

This paper employs a practice-based framework for investigating early Mississippian period culture contact and identity negotiation in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV) through the lens offoodways. The Evelandphase (A.D. 1100–1200) was a setting of significant cultural change as a result of the movement of Cahokian people, objects, and ideas into the region. Recent analysis of excavated materials from the Lamb site in the southern portion of the CIRV affords a closer look at this historical process. Using ceramic and pit feature data, I assess Cahokian influence on traditional Late Woodlandera culinary practices. I conclude that although local residents were actively adopting some aspects of Mississippian culture (including Cahokia potting traditions), they retained traditional Late Woodland organizational practices of cooking, serving, and storing food. By placing the organization offoodways at the center of this study, this paper illuminates another dimension of Cahokian contact in the region.