Description

Book Synopsis
The orthodox view of the Mississippian social world hinges on the idea that chiefdoms—dominance- based hierarchical societies in the Eastern Woodlands of North America—vied for power, often violently but at times cooperatively, through political and economic avenues. These chiefdoms represented something of a feudal state in prehistoric North America, which lasted up to the contract period with Europeans around 1500 AD. In From Cahokia to Larson to Moundville, noted archaeologist A. Martin Byers challenges these assumptions and offers a contrasting view by deconstructing the chiefdom model and offering instead an autonomous social world that focused on spiritual renewal and sacred rituals. Byers presents his case through the archaeological record of Cahokia, Larson, and Moundville’s monumental earthworks and, in doing so, reveals the Mississippian social community to be more complex, and more cooperative, than previously envisioned.

From Cahokia to Larson to Moundville: Death, World Renewal, and the Sacred in the Mississippian Social World of the Late Prehistoric Woodlands

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    A Paperback by A. Martin Byers

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      View other formats and editions of From Cahokia to Larson to Moundville: Death, World Renewal, and the Sacred in the Mississippian Social World of the Late Prehistoric Woodlands by A. Martin Byers

      Book details

      Publisher University of Tennessee Press
      Published 28 February 2015
      ISBN-13 9781621901235
      978-1621901235
      Also in:
      Archaeology Archaeology by period / region Social and cultural anthropology

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      The orthodox view of the Mississippian social world hinges on the idea that chiefdoms—dominance- based hierarchical societies in the Eastern Woodlands of North America—vied for power, often violently but at times cooperatively, through political and economic avenues. These chiefdoms represented something of a feudal state in prehistoric North America, which lasted up to the contract period with Europeans around 1500 AD. In From Cahokia to Larson to Moundville, noted archaeologist A. Martin Byers challenges these assumptions and offers a contrasting view by deconstructing the chiefdom model and offering instead an autonomous social world that focused on spiritual renewal and sacred rituals. Byers presents his case through the archaeological record of Cahokia, Larson, and Moundville’s monumental earthworks and, in doing so, reveals the Mississippian social community to be more complex, and more cooperative, than previously envisioned.

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