Mississippian Mortuary Practices

by Sullivan, Lynne P.

• ISBN13: 9780813034263
• ISBN10: 0813034264
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-18
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

"A richly detailed edited volume that reexamines Mississippian mortuary practices in light of current anthropological and archaeological theoretical perspectives."--C. Cliff Boyd, Radford University "Shows that instead of reflecting status, mortuary programs actually use the dead to refract, realign, and repurpose the roles and relations of the living."--Alex W. Barker, University of Missouri The residents of Mississippian towns principally located in the southeastern and midwestern United States from 900 to 1500 A.D. made many beautiful objects, which included elaborate and well-crafted copper and shell ornaments, pottery vessels, and stonework. Some of these objects were socially valued goods and often were placed in ritual context, such as graves. The funerary context of these artifacts has sparked considerable study and debate among archaeologists, raising questions about the place in society of the individuals interred with such items, as well as the nature of the societies in which these people lived. By focusing on how mortuary practices serve as symbols of beliefs and values for the living, the contributors toMississippian Mortuary Practicesexplore how burial of the dead reflects and reinforces the cosmology of specific cultures, the status of living participants in the burial ceremony, ongoing kin relationships, and other aspects of social organization. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History Ripley P. Bullen Series

Author Biography

Lynne P. Sullivan is research professor of anthropology and curator of archaeology at the Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee. She is coeditor of Archaeology of the Appalachian Highlands, Grit Tempered, and Ancient Earthen Enclosures of the Eastern Woodlands. Robert C. Mainfort Jr., professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, is coeditor of Ancient Earthen Enclosures of the Eastern Woodlands.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Tables	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Mississippian Mortuary Practices and the Quest for Interpretation	p. 1
The Missing Persons in Mississippian Mortuaries	p. 14
Cosmological Layouts of Secondary Burials as Political Instruments	p. 30
Multiple Groups, Overlapping Symbols, and the Creation of a Sacred Space at Etowah's Mound C	p. 54
Social and Spatial Dimensions of Moundville Mortuary Practices	p. 74
Aztalan Mortuary Practices Revisited	p. 90
Mississippian Dimensions of a Fort Ancient Mortuary Program: The Development of Authority and Spatial Grammar at Sun Watch Village	p. 113
Temporal Changes in Mortuary Behavior: Evidence from the Middle and Upper Nodena Sites, Arkansas	p. 128
The Materialization of Status and Social Structure at Koger's Island Cemetery, Alabama	p. 145
Pecan Point as the "Capital" of Pacaha: A Mortuary Perspective	p. 174
Mound Construction and Community Changes within the Mississippian Community at Town Creek	p. 195
Mortuary Practices and Cultural Identity at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century in Eastern Tennessee	p. 234
The Mortuary Assemblage from the Holliston Mills Site, a Mississippian Town in Upper East Tennessee	p. 250
Caves as Mortuary Contexts in the Southeast	p. 270
References Cited	p. 293
Contributors	p. 341
Index	p. 345
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