Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:39:09.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Residues of Feasting and Public Ritual at Early Cahokia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Timothy R. Pauketat ,
Lucretia S. Kelly ,
Gayle J. Fritz ,
Neal H. Lopinot ,
Scott Elias  and
Eve Hargrave
Timothy R. Pauketat
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 109 Davenport Hall, 607 S. Mathews Avenue, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801
Lucretia S. Kelly
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1114, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
Gayle J. Fritz
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1114, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
Neal H. Lopinot
Affiliation:
Center for Archaeological Research, 901 South National, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, MO 65804
Scott Elias
Affiliation:
Geography Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 OEX, United Kingdom
Eve Hargrave
Affiliation:
Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, 209 Nuclear Physics Lab, 23 East Stadium Drive,University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61820
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeological remains excavated from the stratified layers of a pre-Columbian borrow pit in the middle of the Cahokia site inform our understanding of how ritual events were related to the social and political foundations of that enormous center. Ordinary and extraordinary refuse, ranging from foods and cooking pots to craft-production debris and sumptuary goods, are associated with a series of large-scale, single-event dumping episodes related to activities that occurred in the principal plaza. Taken as a set, the layers of ceramic, lithic, zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, osteological, paleoentomological, and sedimentological materials reveal that the construction of Cahokia's Mississippian order was an active, participatory process.

Résumé

Résumé

Restos arqueológicos recuperados de la excavación de las capas estratigráficas de un "pozo de préstamo de tierra " precolombino en la parte central del sitio de Cahokia amplían nuestro entendimiento de como los sucesos rituales se relacionaban con la base social y político del enorme centro. La basura cotidiana y extraordinaria comprende desde comida y ollas de cocina hasta los desechos de la producción artesanal y bienes suntuarios y se asocian a una serie de episodios singulares de gran escala, llevados a cabo en la plaza principal, en los cuales se depositaba la basura. Tomadas como un conjunto, las capas de materiales cerámicos, líticos, zooarqueológicos, arqueobotánicos, osteológicos, paleoentomológicos y sedimentológicos revelan los mecanismos mediante los cuales la comunidad y la entidad política fueron fusionadas para crear el orden Mississippian de Cahokia.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , April 2002 , pp. 257 - 279
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alt, S. M. 2001 Cahokian Change and the Authority of Tradition. In The Archaeology of Traditions: Agency and History Before and After Columbus, edited by Pauketat, T. R., pp. 141–156. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Bareis, C. J. 1975 Report of 1971 University of Illinois-Urbana Excavations at the Cahokia site. In Cahokia Archaeology: Field Reports, edited by Fowler, M. L., pp. 9–11. Illinois State Museum Research Series, Papers in Anthropology No. 3, Springfield.Google Scholar
Bell, A. R. 1990 Separate People: Speaking of Creek Men and Women. American Anthropologist 92:332–345.Google Scholar
Bell, C. 1997 Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. Oxford University Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bent, A. 1962 Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl, Part II. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1978 Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Chmurny, W. W. 1973 The Ecology of the Middle Mississippian Occupation of the American Bottom. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Collins, J. M. 1990 The Archaeology of the Cahokia Mounds ICT-II: Site Structure. Illinois Cultural Resources Study No. 10. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield.Google Scholar
Dalan, R. A. 1997 The Construction of Mississippian Cahokia. In Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World, edited by Pauketat, T. R. and Emerson, T. E., pp. 89–102. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
DeMarris, E., Castillo, L. J., and Earle, T. 1996 Ideology, Materialization, and Power Strategies. Current Anthropology 17:15–31.Google Scholar
De Mott, R. C, Marcucci, D. J., and Williams, J. A. 1993 Chipped Lithic Materials. In The Archaeology of the Cahokia Mounds ICT-II: Testing and Lithics, by Woods, W. I.. De Mott, R. C., Marcucci, D. J., Williams, J. A., and Gums, B. L., Part II, pp. 1–135. Illinois Cultural Resources Study 13. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield.Google Scholar
DePratter, C. B. 1991 Late Prehistoric and Early Historic Chiefdoms in the Southeastern United States. Garland Press, New York.Google Scholar
Dietler, M. 1996 Feasts and Commensal Politics in the Political Economy: Food, Power, and Status in Prehistoric Europe. In Food and the Status Quest: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Wiessner, P. and Schiefenhovel, W., pp. 87–126. Berghahn Books, Oxford.Google Scholar
Dietler, M., and B. Hayden (editors) 2001 Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Douglas, J. G. 1976 Collins: A Late Woodland Ceremonial Complex in the Woodfordian Northeast. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Dunavan, S. L. 1993 Plant Remains. In Temples for Cahokia Lords: Preston Holder’s 1955-1956 Excavations of Kunnemann Mound, by Pauketat, T. R., pp. 125–133. University of Michigan, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, No. 26. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Elias, S. A. 1994 Quaternary Insects and Their Environments. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Emerson, T. E. 1989 Water, Serpents, and the Underworld: An Exploration into Cahokia Symbolism. In The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex: Artifacts and Analysis, edited by Galloway, P., pp. 45–92. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Emerson, T. E. 1997 Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Fortier, A. C. 1992 Stone Figurines. In The Sponemann Site 2: The Mississippian and Oneota Occupations, by Jackson, D. K., Fortier, A. C., and Williams, J. A., pp. 277–303. American Bottom Archaeology, FAI-270 Reports 24. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Fowler, M. L. 1991 Mound 72 and Early Mississippian at Cahokia. In New Perspectives on Cahokia: Views from the Periphery, edited by Stoltman, J. B., pp. 1–28. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Fowler, M. L. 1997 The Cahokia Atlas: A Historical Atlas of Cahokia Archaeology. Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, Studies in Archaeology, No. 2. University of Illinois, Urbana.Google Scholar
Fowler, M. L., Rose, J., Vander Leest, B., and Ahler, S. R. 2000 The Mound 72 Area: Dedicated and Sacred Space in Early Cahokia. Illinois State Museum, Reports of Investigations, No. 54. Springfield.Google Scholar
Fritz, G. J. 1994 Precolumbian Cucurbita argyrosperma ssp. argyrosperma (Cucurbitaceaae) in the Eastern Woodlands of North America. Economic Botany 48:280–292.Google Scholar
Gums, B. L. 1993 Groundstone Tools, Modified Rock, and Exotic Materials. In The Archaeology of the Cahokia Mounds ICT-II: Testing and Lithics, by Woods, W. I., De Mott, R. C., Marcucci, D. J., Williams, J. A., and Gums, B. L., Part III, pp. 1–121. Illinois Cultural Resources Study No. 13. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield.Google Scholar
Hall, R. L. 1989 The Cultural Background of Mississippian Symbolism. In The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, edited by Galloway, P., pp. 239–278. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1996 Feasting in Prehistoric and Traditional Societies. In Food and the Status Quest: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Wiessner, P. and Schiefenhovel, W., pp. 127–148. Berghahn Books, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hendon, J. A. 1996 Archaeological Approaches to the Organization of Domestic Labor: Household Practice and Domestic Relations. Annual Review of Anthropology 25:45–61.Google Scholar
Heiser, C. B. 1969 Some Considerations of Early Plant Domestication. BioScience 19:228–231.Google Scholar
Holley, G. R. 1989 The Archaeology of the Cahokia Mounds ICT-II: Ceramics. Illinois Cultural Resources Study No. 11. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield.Google Scholar
Holley, G. R., Dalan, R. A., and Smith, P. A. 1993 Investigations in the Cahokia Site Grand Plaza. American Antiquity 58:306–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, J. H. 1968 The Southern Ceremonial Complex and Its Interpretations. Missouri Archaeological Society Memoir No. 6. Columbia.Google Scholar
Jackson, H. E., and Scott, S. L. 1995 The Faunal Record of the Southeastern Elite: The Implications of Economy, Social Relations, and Ideology. Southeastern Archaeology 14:103–119.Google Scholar
Kelly, J. D., and Kaplan, M. 1990 History, Structure, and Ritual. Annual Review of Anthropology 19:119–150.Google Scholar
Kelly, J. E. 1997 Stirling-Phase Sociopolitical Activity at East St. Louis and Cahokia. In Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World, edited by Pauketat, T. R. and Emerson, T. E., pp. 141–166. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Kelly, L. S. 1991 Zooarchaeological Remains. In The Archaeology of the Cahokia Mounds ICT-II: Biological Remains, by Lopinot, N. H., Kelly, L. S., Milner, G. R. and Paine, R., pp. 1–78. Illinois Cultural Resources Study No. 13. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield.Google Scholar
Kelly, L. S. 1997 Patterns of Faunal Exploitation at Cahokia. In Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World, edited by Pauketat, T. R. and Emerson, T. E., pp. 69–88. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Kelly, L. S. 2000 Social Implications of Faunal Provisioning for the Cahokia Site: Initial Mississippian, Lohmann Phase. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.Google Scholar
Kelly, L. S. 2001 A Case of Ritual Feasting at the Cahokia Site. In Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power, edited by Dietler, M. and Hayden, B., pp. 334–367. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Kertzer, D. 1988 Ritual Politics, and Power. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Knight, V. J. Jr., 1986 The Institutional Organization of Mississippian Religion. American Antiquity 51:675–687.Google Scholar
Knight, V. J. Jr., 1989 Symbolism of Mississippian mounds. In Powhatan’s Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast, edited by Wood, P. H., Waselkov, G. A., and Hatley, M. T., pp. 279–291. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Lopinot, N. H. 1991 Archaeobotanical Remains. In The Archaeology of the Cahokia Mounds ICT-II: Biological Remains, Part 1. Illinois Cultural Resources Study No. 13. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield.Google Scholar
Lopinot, N. H. 1994 A New Crop of Data on the Cahokian Polity. In Agricultural Origins and Development in the Midcontinent, edited by Green, W., pp. 127–153. Office of the State Archaeologist, Report No. 19. Iowa City, Iowa.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, D., and Jones, K. T. 1988 A Reconsideration of Animal Body Part Indices. American Antiquity 53:486–504.Google Scholar
Milner, G. R., Emerson, T. E., Mehrer, M. W., Williams, J. A., and Esarey, D. 1984 Mississippian and Oneota Period. In American Bottom Archaeology, edited by Bareis, C. J. and Porter, J. W., pp. 158–186. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Moerman, D. E. 1986 Medicinal Plants of Native America. University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, Technical Reports, No. 19. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Muller, J. 1997 Mississippian Political Economy. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Pauketat, T. R. 1993 Temples for Cahokia Lords: Preston Holder’s 1955-1956 Excavation of Kunnemann Mound. University of Michigan, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, Number 26. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Pauketat, T. R. 1994 The Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Pauketat, T. R. 1995 Additional Notes on the Burned Building Beneath Cahokia’s Kunnemann Mound. Illinois Archaeology 7:102–108.Google Scholar
Pauketat, T. R., and Emerson, T. E. 1991 The Ideology of Authority and the Power of the Pot. American Anthropologist 93:919–941.Google Scholar
Pauketat, T. R., and Emerson, T. E. 1997 Introduction: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World. In Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World, edited by Pauketat, T. R. and Emerson, T. E., pp. 1–29. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Pauketat, T. R., and Emerson, T. E. 1999 The Representation of Hegemony as Community at Cahokia. In Material Symbols: Culture and Economy in Prehistory, edited by Robb, J. E., pp. 302–317. Occasional Paper No. 26, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Pauketat, T. R., and Rees, M. A. 1996 Early Cahokia Project 1994 Excavations at Mound 49, Cahokia (11-S-34-2). Unpublished report submitted to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield.Google Scholar
Porter, J. W. 1974 Cahokia Archaeology as Viewed from the Mitchell Site: A Satellite Community at AD 1150-1200. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Porter, J. W. 1977 The Mitchell Site and Prehistoric Exchange Systems at Cahokia: AD 1000 ± 300. In Explorations into Cahokia Archaeology (2nd edition), edited by Fowler, M. L., pp. 137–164. Illinois Archaeological Survey Bulletin 7. Urbana.Google Scholar
Potter, J. M. 2000 Pots, Parties, and Politics: Communal Feasting in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 65:471–92.Google Scholar
Purdue, J. R” Styles, B. W, and Masulis, M. C. 1989 Faunal Remains and White-Tail Deer Exploitation from a Late Woodland Upland Encampment: The Boschert Site (23SC609), St. Charles County, Missouri. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 14:146–163.Google Scholar
Radin, P. 1990 The Winnebago Tribe. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Rees, M. A. 1997 Coercion, Tribute and Chiefly Authority: The Regional Development of Mississippian Political Culture. Southeastern Archaeology 16:113–133.Google Scholar
Waring, A. J. Jr., 1968 The Southern Cult and Muskhogean Ceremonial. In The Waring Papers: The Collected Works of Antonio J. Waring, Jr., edited by Williams, S., pp. 30–69. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 58. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Welch, P. D., and Scarry, C. M. 1995 Status-Related Variation in Foodways in the Moundville Chiefdom. American Antiquity 60:397–119.Google Scholar
Wilson, G. D. 1996 Insight Through Icons. Illinois Archaeology 8:23–37.Google Scholar
Witthoft, J. 1949 Green Corn Ceremonialism in the Eastern Woodlands. University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, Occasional Contributions No. 13. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Zeder, M. 1996 Zooarchaeological Approaches to Complexity: A View from the Old World. Paper presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Birmingham, Alabama.Google Scholar