Biocultural Histories in La Florida

by Stojanowski, Christopher M.

• ISBN13: 9780817352677
• ISBN10: 0817352678
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-15
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

Indigenous populations respond to colonial expansion. This book examines the effects of the Spanish mission system on population structure and genetic variability in indigenous communities living in northern Florida and southern Georgia during the 16th and 17th centuries. Data on tooth size were collected from 26 archaeological samples representing three time periods: Late Precontact (~1200-1500), Early Mission (~1600-1650), and Late Mission (~1650-1700) and were subjected to a series of statistical tests evaluating genetic variability. Predicted changes in phenotypic population variability are related to models of group interaction, population demo-graphy, and genetic admixture as suggested by ethnohistoric and archaeological data. Results suggest considerable differences in diachronic responses to the mission environment for each cultural province. The Apalachee demonstrate a marked increase in variability while the Guale demonstrate a decline in variability. Demographic models of population collapse are therefore inconsistent with predicted changes based on population geneticsl, and the determinants of population structure seem largely local in nature. This book highlights the specificity with which indigenous communities responded to European contact and the resulting transformations in their social worlds. "Stojanowski's work is like man's DNA, the structure of a lifeform, but here it is the structure or glue that holds together the historic puzzle with its Apalachee, Timucua, Guale, and Spanish pieces that other scholars have been trying to put together."--Keith P. Jacobi, author ofLast Rites for the Tipu Maya Christopher Stojanowskiis Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and a specialist in bioarchaeology.

Author Biography

Christopher Stojanowski is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and a specialist in bioarchaeology.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Historical Bioarchaeology	p. 1
The Archaeology
The Setting: The Spanish Mission System of La Florida	p. 7
Bioethnohistory	p. 26
The Bioanthropology
Evolution and Transmission of Human Tooth Size	p. 59
Conceptual and Research Methods	p. 80
The Synthesis
Demographic Transformations among the Apalachee	p. 103
Aggregation and Collapse on the Georgia Coast	p. 127
Local and Global Histories	p. 153
Appendix	p. 165
Bibliography	p. 167
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