Michael Nassaney and Eric S. Johnson (edtitors) 2000. Interpretations of Native North American Life: Material Contributions to Native North American life. University Press of Florida and the Society for Historical Archaeology, Gainesville. 431 pp; a bibliography and an index.
This new collection of articles brings together the techniques and data from the studies of ethnohistory and archaeology to assist in the interpretation of past cultures of the North American continent. Ethnohistory involves studying the written information available about a past or living culture; applying its techniques and data to archaeology, and vice versa, provides a richer, more informative text on the past. This fact is amply illustrated by the articles in this book from the Society for Historical Archaeology and the University Press of Florida.
After an introduction to the topic, the book is split into three sections. Section 1 is entitled "Ethnogenesis: The Creation, Maintenance, and Transformation of Ethnic Identity." In this section are included articles on the Quapaw of eastern Arkansas by Kathleen H. Cande; identifying the occupants of the towns of Stadacona and Hochelaga (now known as Quebec City and Montreal), by James F. Pendergast; on the Ho-Chunk (formerly Winnebago) by John Staeck; on the 17th century Algonquin tribes of southern New England by Eric S. Johnson; and on Ioway and Mesquaki ribbon work by Susan M. Neill.
After an introduction to the topic, the book is split into three sections. Section 1 is entitled "Ethnogenesis: The Creation, Maintenance, and Transformation of Ethnic Identity." In this section are included articles on the Quapaw of eastern Arkansas by Kathleen H. Cande; identifying the occupants of the towns of Stadacona and Hochelaga (now known as Quebec City and Montreal), by James F. Pendergast; on the Ho-Chunk (formerly Winnebago) by John Staeck; on the 17th century Algonquin tribes of southern New England by Eric S. Johnson; and on Ioway and Mesquaki ribbon work by Susan M. Neill.
The second section is entitled "Change and Community in Daily Life." It includes an article by Alice Beck Kehoe on a French trader's house in Saskatchewan; on tracing the acculturation process of Mono Basin Paiute in California by Brooke S. Arkush; an interesting peek into cache pits at Michigan Late Woodland sites by Sean B. Dunham; an article by Carol I. Mason and Margaret B. Holman on the lack of evidence of prehistoric maple sugaring; and an article on recognizing the flaws in George Catlin's paintings of the Mandan as documents, and still being able to use them, by Mark S. Parker Miller.
The third section of Interpretations is called "Ritual, Iconography, and Ideology." It includes an article by Larissa A. Thomas on how archaeologists have missed images of women in Mississippian symbolism; Barbara Brotherton's piece on identifying specific artists in Tlingit masks; an article by Paul A. Robinson on the Narrangansett Indians and how their history is perceived by the town of Jamestown, Rhode Island; and a discussion of the contact-period RI 1000 cemetery site of southeastern New England, by Michael S. Nassaney.
The third section of Interpretations is called "Ritual, Iconography, and Ideology." It includes an article by Larissa A. Thomas on how archaeologists have missed images of women in Mississippian symbolism; Barbara Brotherton's piece on identifying specific artists in Tlingit masks; an article by Paul A. Robinson on the Narrangansett Indians and how their history is perceived by the town of Jamestown, Rhode Island; and a discussion of the contact-period RI 1000 cemetery site of southeastern New England, by Michael S. Nassaney.
The book is really an interesting, eclectic group of papers, assembled in part from a symposium at the American Society for Ethnohistory meeting. Several of the articles are quite memorable and will be useful to many of us working in the history and prehistory of the North American continent, both as object lessons and as suggestions for sources of comprehending the archaeological record.
