Hostname: page-component-cc8bf7c57-n7pht Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-11T22:56:09.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Yanomamö of the Mississippi Valley? Some Reflections on Larson (1972), Gibson (1974), and Mississippian Period Warfare in the Southeastern United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

D. Bruce Dickson
D. Bruce Dickson*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Larson's (1972) hypothesis that warfare during the Mississippian period in the Southeast was primarily a struggle over the fertile silt and sandy loam bottomland soils is summarized. This is then contrasted with Gibson's (1974) thesis that, at least in the Lower Mississippi Valley, warfare was caused by the "asymmetrical" nature of the kinship systems found there. Such systems led to status decline over several generations and forced individuals to attempt to offset the decline by achieving success in warfare. The Larson-Gibson dispute is essentially an ontological argument which pits the materialist's view of reality against that of the idealist. This dispute is compared to a similar one between Harris (1971, 1974, 1977, 1979) and Lizot (1977) concerning the explanation of Yamomamo warfare in South America. Following this, the basic material conditions of Mississippian warfare are suggested. The importance of mechanisms such as Gibson has proposed for understanding Mississippian warfare at the "tactical" level is recognized. Finally, primacy is given to Larson"s materialism at the "strategic" level.

Type
comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , October 1981 , pp. 909 - 916
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1981

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

References Cited

Beckerman, Stephen 1979 The abundance of protein in Amazonia: a reply to Gross. American Anthropologist 81(3):533-560.Google Scholar
Berger, Peter L., and Thomas, Luckmann 1966 The social construction of reality. Doubleday, New York.Google Scholar
Carneiro, Robert L. 1970 A theory of the origin of the state. Science 169:733-738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1966 Yanomamö warfare, social organization and marriage alliances. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1967 Yanomamö—the fierce people. Natural History 76:22-31.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1968a The feast. Natural History 76:22-31.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1968b Yanomamö social organization and warfare. In War, the anthropology of armed conflict and aggression, edited by Marvin, Harris and Robert, Murphy, pp. 109-159. Natural History Press, Garden City, N.J. Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1968c The culture-ecology of shifting (pioneering) cultivation among the Yanomamb Indians. Proceedings VIII International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences 3:249-255.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1972 Social causes for population fissioning: tribal social organization and genetic microdifferentiation. In The structure of human populations, edited by Harrison, G. A. and Boyce, A. J., pp. 252-282. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1974 Studying in the Yanomamö. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1976a Genealogy, solidarity and relatedness: limits to local group size and patterns of fissioning in an expanding population. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 1975. 19:95-110.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A.> 1976b Fission in an Amazonian tribe. Sciences 16(1):14-18.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napolean A. 1977 Yanomamö: the fierce people (second ed.). Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Chagnon, Napoleon A., and Raymond, B. Hames 1979 Protein deficiency and tribal warfare in Amazonia: new data. Science 203:910-913.Google Scholar
Clay, R. # 1976 Tactics, strategy and operations: the Mississippian system responds to its environment. Mid-Continental Journal of Archaeology 1(2):137-162.Google Scholar
Cocco, Luis 1972 Iyewei-teri: quince aflos entre Jos Yanomamös. Libreria Editorial Salesiana, Caracas, Venezuela.Google Scholar
Dyson-Hudson, Rada, and Smith, E. A. 1978 Human territoriality. American Anthropologist 80(1):21-41.Google Scholar
Friedman, J. 1974 Marxism, structuralism, and vulgar materialism. Man 9:444-469.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 1974 Aboriginal warfare in the Protohistoric Southeast: an alternative perspective. American Antiquity 39:130-133.Google Scholar
Godelier, M. 1977 Perspectives in Marxist anthropology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gross, D. R. 1975 Protein capture and cultural development in the Amazon basin. American Anthropologist 7V: 526-549.Google Scholar
Harris, Marvin 1971 Culture, man and nature: an introduction to cultural anthropology. Thomas Y. Crowell, New York.Google Scholar
Harris, Marvin 1974 Cows, pigs, wars and witches: the riddles of culture. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Harris, Marvin 1977 Cannibals and kings: the origins of culture. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Harris, Marvin 1979 Cultural materialism. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Jarman, M. R. 1972 A territorial model for archaeology: a behavioral and geographical approach. In Models in archaeology, edited by Clarke, D. L., pp. 705-733. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Jochim, Michael A, 1976 Hunter-gatherer subsistence and settlement: a predictive model. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Krummer, H. 1971 Spacing mechanisms in social behavior. In Man and beast, edited by Eisenberg, J. F. and Dillon, W. S., pp. 219-234. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Larson, Lewis Functional considerations of warfare in the Southeast during the Mississippian period. American Antiquity 37:383-392.Google Scholar
Lizot, Jacques 1971a Aspects économiques et sociaux du changement cultural chez les Yanomami. L'Homme 11(1):32-51.Google Scholar
Lizot, Jacques 1971b Remarques sur le vocabulaire de parente Yanomami. L'Homme 11(2):25-28.Google Scholar
Lizot, Jacques 1971c Societé ou économie? Quelques thèmes à propos d'une communauté d'Amerindiens. Journal de la Societé des Americanistes 60:136-175.Google Scholar
Lizot, Jacques 1972 Poisons Yanomami de chasse, de guerre et de pêche. Antropoiogica 31:3-20.Google Scholar
Lizot, Jacques 1975a Contribution a l'étude de la technologie Yanomami: le modelage des pots et l'écorçage des arbes. Antropoiogica 38:15-33.Google Scholar
Lizot, Jacques 1975b El hombre de la pantorilla preñada: y otros mitos Yanomami. Fundación La Salle Ciencias Naturaies, Monograph 21.Google Scholar
Lizot, Jacques 1976 Le cercle de Jeux. Editions du Seuil, Paris.Google Scholar
Lizot, Jacques 1977 Population, resources and warfare among the Yanomami. Man (n.s.) 12:497-517.Google Scholar
Muller, Jon D. 1978 The Southeast. In Ancient native Americans, edited by Jesse, D. Jennings, pp. 281-325. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Neel, James V., Arends, T., Brewer, C., Chagnon, N., Gershowitz, H., Layrisse, M., Layrisse, Z., MacCluer, J., Migliazza, E., Oliver, W., Salzano, F., Spielman, R., Ward, R., and Weitkamp, L. 1972 Studies on the Yanomamö Indians. Proceedings of the 4th International Congress of Human Genetics, Paris 1971, pp. 96-111.Google Scholar
Neel, James V., Centerwall, W. R., Chagnon, N. A., and Casey, H. L. 1970 Notes on the effect of measles and measles vaccine in a virgin-soil population of South American Indians. American Journal of Epidemiology 91:418-429. Neel, James V., and Napoleon A. ChagnonGoogle Scholar
Neel, James V., Centerwall, W. R., Chagnon, N. A., and Casey, H. L. 1968 The demography of two tribes of primitive, relatively unacculturated American Indians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 59:680-689.Google Scholar
Peterson, Nicolas 1975 Hunter-gatherer territoriality: a perspective from Australia. American Anthropologist 77(1):53-68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Bruce D. 1978 Variation in Mississippian settlement pattern. In Mississippian settlement patterns, edited by Bruce D., Smith, pp. 479-503. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Taylor, Richard 1967 Causation. In The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (vol. II), edited by Paul, Edwards, pp. 56-66. Macmillan, New York and Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wynne-Edwards, V. C. 1970 Social organization as a population regulator. In Science in archaeology, edited by Don, Brothwell and Eric, Higgs, pp. 273-282. Praeger, New York.Google Scholar