essay

Social differentiation in Mississippian and Fort Ancient societies

mississippian communities and householdsTuscaloosaPublished In 1995 • Pages: 58-80

By: Nass, John P., Yerkes, Richard W..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Although Nass and Yerkes are concerned with social power and the organization of small communities, their focus in this article is less on change through time and more on the particulars of recognizing the material correlates of differential power within communities. Here, specifically, they compare the settlement organization associated with Cahokia and Fort Ancient complexes. They note that the type of multi-tiered settlement system Melvin Fowler (1978) described for the Cahokia region does not exist in the Upper Ohio valley. Given this type of variability, they ask whether or not differences in the settlement systems reflect acutal differences in social organization, as is often assumed. Through detailed analyses of lithic tool function, artifact distributions, and feature morphology, they compare the sites of Labras Lake and Sun Watch Village (of the Fort Ancient tradition) to determine how leadership might have been organized at the community level (32: Rogers, p. 4).
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Theoretical orientation in research and its results
Preservation and storage of food
Dwellings
Settlement patterns
Status, role, and prestige
Social relationships and groups
Household
Territorial hierarchy
traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Mississippian
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2000
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Eastern Woodlands
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Archaeologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 2005
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1200 BP - 600 BP (800 A.D. - 1400 A.D.)
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
southeastern United States
NotesAdditional notes
John P. Nass, Jr. and Richard W. Yerkes
For bibliographical references see document 31:[Rogers and Smith]
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
94044049
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Mississippian culture