Leadership and Polity in Mississippian Society

Leadership and Polity in Mississippian Society
Author: Brian M. Butler
Publisher: Center for Archaeological Investigations
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN:

The contributors to this volume argue for a much richer view of variation in Mississippian leadership structures-including variation in gender relations, economic structure, political institutions, and religious organization--than the often dichotomized view of "simple" vs. "complex" chiefdoms.

The Mississippian Emergence

The Mississippian Emergence
Author: Bruce D. Smith
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2007-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0817354522

This collection, addressing a topic of ongoing interest and debate in American archaeology, examines the evolution of ranked chiefdoms in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States during the period A.D. 700–1200. The volume brings together a broad range of professionals engaged in the fieldwork that has vitalized the theoretical debates on the development of Mississippi Valley cultures. The initial chapter provides a general discussion of various explanations for the rise of these distinctive ranked societies in the eastern United States (A.D. 750-1050) and sets the stage for the interdisciplinary analysis from multiple viewpoints that follows. The first section discusses a cluster of individual sites in the Midwest and Southeast and reveals the parallel—and occasionally divergent—paths followed by the inhabitants as they transitioned from Late Woodland into Mississippian lifeways. The chapters in the second half discuss by region the emergence of ranked agricultural societies and examine how these networks played a role in the large-scale and roughly contemporaneous socio-political development. Contributors: C. Clifford Boyd Jr. James A. Brown R. P. Stephen Davis Jr. John House John E. Kelly Richard A. Kerber Dan F. Morse Phyllis Morse Martha Ann Rolingson Gerald F. Schroedl Bruce D. Smith Paul D. Welch Howard D. Winters

Mississippian Polity and Politics on the Gulf Coastal Plain

Mississippian Polity and Politics on the Gulf Coastal Plain
Author: Patrick C. Livingood
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 0817356398

Using research at the Pevey (22Lw510) and Lowe-Steen (22Lw511) mound sites on the Pearl River in Lawrence County, Mississippi, this book explores the social and political mechanisms by which these polities may have interacted with each other and the geographic limit to the effects of inter-polity competition.

Ancient Complex Societies

Ancient Complex Societies
Author: Jennifer C. Ross
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 585
Release: 2017-01-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315305615

Ancient Complex Societies examines the archaeological evidence for the rise and functioning of politically and socially “complex” cultures in antiquity. Particular focus is given to civilizations exhibiting positions of leadership, social and administrative hierarchies, emerging and already developed complex religious systems, and economic differentiation. Case studies are drawn from around the globe, including Asia, the Mediterranean region, and the American continents. Using case studies from Africa, Polynesia, and North America, discussion is dedicated to identifying what “complex” means and when it should be applied to ancient systems. Each chapter attempts to not only explore the sociopolitical and economic elements of ancient civilizations, but to also present an overview of what life was like for the later population within each system, sometimes drilling down to individual people living their daily lives. Throughout the chapters, the authors address problems with the idea of complexity, the incomparability of cultures, and the inconsistency of archaeological and historical evidence in reconstructing ancient cultures.

A New History of the American South

A New History of the American South
Author: W. Fitzhugh Brundage
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 613
Release: 2023-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1469670194

For at least two centuries, the South's economy, politics, religion, race relations, fiction, music, foodways and more have figured prominently in nearly all facets of American life. In A New History of the American South, W. Fitzhugh Brundage joins a stellar group of accomplished historians in gracefully weaving a new narrative of southern history from its ancient past to the present. This groundbreaking work draws on both well-established and new currents in scholarship, among them global and Atlantic world history, histories of African diaspora, and environmental history. The volume also considers the experiences of all people of the South: Black, white, Indigenous, female, male, poor, and elite. Together, the essays compose a seamless, cogent, and engaging work that can be read cover to cover or sampled at leisure. Contributors are Peter A. Coclanis, Gregory P. Downs, Laura F. Edwards, Robbie Ethridge, Kari Frederickson, Paul Harvey, Kenneth R. Janken, Martha S. Jones, Blair L. M. Kelley, Kate Masur, Michael A. McDonnell, Scott Reynolds Nelson, James D. Rice, Natalie J. Ring, and Jon F. Sensbach.

Globalizations and the Ancient World

Globalizations and the Ancient World
Author: Justin Jennings
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2010-11-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1139492926

In this book, Justin Jennings argues that globalization is not just a phenomenon limited to modern times. Instead he contends that the globalization of today is just the latest in a series of globalizing movements in human history. Using the Uruk, Mississippian, and Wari civilizations as case studies, Jennings examines how the growth of the world's first great cities radically transformed their respective areas. The cities required unprecedented exchange networks, creating long-distance flows of ideas, people, and goods. These flows created cascades of interregional interaction that eroded local behavioral norms and social structures. New, hybrid cultures emerged within these globalized regions. Although these networks did not span the whole globe, people in these areas developed globalized cultures as they interacted with one another. Jennings explores how understanding globalization as a recurring event can help in the understanding of both the past and the present.

Following the Mississippian Spread

Following the Mississippian Spread
Author: Robert A. Cook
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2022-06-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030890821

This book is the first to specifically trace the movement of Mississippian maize farmers throughout the US Midwest and Southeast. By providing a backdrop of shifting climatic conditions during the period, this volume also investigates the relationship between farmers and their environments. Detailed regional overviews of key locations in the Mississippi Valley, the Ohio Valley, and the peripheries of the Mississippian culture area reveal patterns and variation in the expression of Mississippian culture and interactions between migrants and local communities. Methodologically, the case studies highlight the strengths of integrating a variety of data sets to identify migration. The volume provides a broader case study of the links between climate change, migration, and the spread of agriculture that is relevant to archaeologists and anthropologists studying early agricultural societies throughout the world. Key patterns of adaptation to and mitigation of the effects of droughts, for example, provide a framework for understanding the options available to societies in the face of climate change afforded by the time-depth of an archaeological perspective.

New Materialisms Ancient Urbanisms

New Materialisms Ancient Urbanisms
Author: Susan M. Alt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2019-08-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351008471

The future of humanity is urban, and knowledge of urbanism’s deep past is critical for us all to navigate that future. The time has come for archaeologists to rethink this global phenomenon by asking what urbanism is and, more to the point, was. Can we truly understand ancient urbanism by only asking after the human element, or are the properties and qualities of landscapes, materials, and atmospheres equally causal? The nine authors of New Materialisms Ancient Urbanisms seek less anthropocentric answers to questions about the historical relationships between urbanism and humanity in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They analyze the movements and flows of materials, things, phenomena, and beings—human and otherwise—as these were assembled to produce the kinds of complex, dense, and stratified relationships that we today label urban. In so doing, the book emerges as a work of both theory and historical anthropology. It breaks new ground in the archaeology of urbanism, building on the latest ‘New Materialist’, ‘relational-ontological’, and ‘realist’ trends in social theory. This book challenges a new generation of students to think outside the box, and provides scholars of urbanism, archaeology, and anthropology with a fresh perspective on the development of urban society.

War, Peace, and Human Nature

War, Peace, and Human Nature
Author: Douglas P. Fry
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2015-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190232463

"The chapters in this book [posit] that humans clearly have the capacity to make war, but since war is absent in some cultures, it cannot be viewed as a human universal. And counter to frequent presumption, the actual archaeological record reveals the recent emergence of war. It does not typify the ancestral type of human society, the nomadic forager band, and contrary to widespread assumptions, there is little support for the idea that war is ancient or an evolved adaptation. Views of human nature as inherently warlike stem not from the facts but from cultural views embedded in Western thinking"--Amazon.com.

Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology

Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology
Author: David G. Anderson
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2012-04-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1646425596

This book in the SAA Press Current Perspectives Series represents a period-by-period synthesis of southeastern prehistory designed for high school and college students, avocational archaeologists, and interested members of the general public. It also serves as a basic reference for professional archaeologists worldwide on the record of a remarkable region.