Description
Book SynopsisDeconstructs earthen mounds and myths in examining their importance in contemporary Native communities. Drawing on ethnographic and archaeological studies, Jay Miller explores the wide-ranging themes and variations of mounds, from those built thousands of years ago to contemporary mounds, focusing on Native southeastern and Oklahoma towns.
Trade Review"Fascinating, thorough, insightful, and provocative."—L. E. Sponsel,
CHOICE"Miller's rich descriptions, layering of historical and modern perspectives, and holistic viewpoint of mounds made clear that what he really seeks is collaboration and understanding. . . . An enjoyable and informative read."—Erin C. Dempsey,
Great Plains Research"As an extended meditation on the power of mound architecture and its continued significance to living, vital, communities,
Ancestral Mounds is without parallel."—Matthew Jennings,
Kansas History"Highly readable, intriguing, and nuanced, Miller’s text is a valuable contribution to a growing body of scholarship highlighting the social-symbolic significance of mounds in cosmological context. . . .
Ancestral Mounds: Vitality and Volatility of Native America would therefore benefit any scholar of American Indian studies."—Jessica C. Bittner,
Southeastern Archaeology"
Ancestral Mounds provides us with the continuity through time of Indigenous ceremonial practices and addresses the continued struggle by Indigenous communities for recognition of their importance."—Aimee E. Carbaugh,
Native American and Indigenous Studies“
Ancestral Mounds is an excellent survey of updated information on earthworks . . . based on thorough research.”—Blue Clark, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, author of
Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock: Treaty Rights and Indian Law at the End of the Nineteenth Century “Jay Miller is an accomplished scholar of both traditional Native American peoples and their modern descendants. He brings fresh insights and new sense to correct old popular nonsense and outdated academic dogma regarding the profound ancestral meanings and enduring significance of earthen Indian mounds.”—Raymond D. Fogelson, senior editor of
Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 14: Southeast “Fully grounded in linguistics, archaeology, and ethnography, this exciting book rethinks the history of humans and nature.”—Laura Dassow Walls, author of
The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America “Jay Miller provides a thought-provoking ethnographic interpretation of the religious nature of mound building in eastern North America.”—Brice Obermeyer, author of
Delaware Tribe in a Cherokee Nation “Miller has a unique and valuable perspective on mounds, also known as earthen forms. I have tried to describe prehistoric mounds as fossil rituals. Miller describes them as ongoing phenomena and also broadens basic definitions.”—Robert L. Hall, author of
An Archaeology of the Soul: North American Indian Belief and Ritual Table of ContentsForeword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Conventions
Archaeological Time Frame
Kinship Codes
Graphic Codes
1. Mounding Up
2. Breaking Ground
3. SEeing Mounds
4. Modern Mounding
5. Mounds in Full
Notes
Bibliography
Index
