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Gradual or Step-Wise Change: The Development of Sedentary Settlement Patterns in Northeast Mississippi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Janet Rafferty
Janet Rafferty*
Affiliation:
Cobb Institute of Archaeology, P.O. Drawer AR, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762
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Abstract

Culture historians working on the Archaic and Woodland periods in eastern North America have adopted an essentialist view of settlement-subsistence relations, while processual archaeologists often have employed concepts emphasizing transformational relations to characterize settlement-pattern change. Selectionist theory uses detailed examination of variability in explaining change. Seven variables measured on a sequence of seriated Archaic and Woodland assemblages from sites in northeast Mississippi show sudden settlement-pattern change at the beginning of the Middle Woodland; this is interpreted as the advent of settled life in the study area. This case contradicts gradualist and essentialist settlement-subsistence scenarios. Such analyses hold promise for identifying the selective pressures at work when settlement patterns change.

Resumen

Resumen

Los “historiadores culturales” de arqueología, quienes estudian las épocas del Arcaico y “Woodland” en el este de América del Norte han elegido una perspectiva “esencialista” referente las interrelaciones subsistencia-asentamiento, mientras que arqueólogos “procesualistas” (practicantes de la “nueva arqueología”) en su mayoría utilizan conceptos que ponen énfasis en las relaciones transformativas para caracterizar cambios en patrones de asentamiento. La teoría seleccionista utiliza una examinación detallada de variabilidad para explicar cambio. Siete variables analizadas en una secuencia de colecciones artefactuales de sitios arqueológicos en el noreste del estado de Misisipi muestran un cambio brusco en patrones de asentamiento en el principio de la época Woodland Mediano; ésto se interpreta como evidencia de un cambio hacia asentamientos sedentarios en la zona de estudio. Este caso pone en duda los análisis “gradualistas” y “esencialistas” de interrelaciones subsistencia-asentamiento. Los análisis “seleccionistas” ofrecen la posibilidad de identificar las presiones selectivas que inciden en los cambios de patrones de asentamiento.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , July 1994 , pp. 405 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1994

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