1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910796405903321

Autore

Byers Albert Martin

Titolo

The real mound builders of North America : a critical realist prehistory of the Eastern Woodlands, 200 BC-1450 AD / / Albert Martin Byers

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Lanham, Maryland : , : Lexington Books, , 2018

©2018

ISBN

1-4985-7063-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (460 pages)

Disciplina

974.01

Soggetti

Woodland culture

Mound-builders

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction : continuist and discontinuist histories -- The incomplete debunking of the mound builder mythology -- Unitary polities and dual heterarchies : apprehending social systems from alternative perspectives -- The dual complementary heterarchical community/cult sodality heterarchy model -- The symbolic pragmatic model of style and the custodial franchising of sacred bundles -- The mourning/world renewal mortuary model : the postmortem human sacrificial chaîne opératoire mortuary trajectory -- Settlement, subsistence, and ceremonialism : the deontic ecology of the prehistoric Eastern Woodlands -- The dissolution of a transregional second-order Hopewellian ceremonial sphere -- Community polities or dual heterarchies : extreme displaced mortuary depositions and demonstrating the "best fit" truth -- The emergence of the complementary heterarchical chiefdom community : singular-selective candidature practice -- The emergence of vacant quarters and the late prehistoric period--post-late prehistoric period transition -- The Lower Chattahoochee River Valley : a primary Southeastern Mississippian ceremonial sphere -- The late prehistoric period Savannah River Valley : a first-order Southern Appalachian complicated stamped ceremonial sphere -- The Etowah site of the Etowah River Valley late prehistoric period : paramount chiefdom polity or dispersed third-order cult sodality heterarchy? -- The formation and



transformation of mound C of the Etowah site -- Conclusion : the real mound builder social systems.

Sommario/riassunto

"The Real Mound Builders of North America contrasts the dominant evolutionary view that emphasizes abrupt discontinuities with the Hopewellian ceremonial assemblage and mounds. Byers argues that these communities persisted largely unchanged in terms of their essential social structures and cultural traditions while varying only in terms of ceremonial practices and their associated sodality organizations that manifested these deep structures"--