Timothy R. Pauketat and Thomas Emerson. 1997. Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
Whether you are a fan of Cultural Resource Management or not, there is no escaping the fact that an enormous amount of archaeological information has been produced by it. The best example of this is Cahokia, the preeminent cultural center in the Mississippi River Valley between 1050–1200 AD.
Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World, edited by Timothy R. Pauketat and Thomas E. Emerson, present thirteen essays on different topics, "to establish for the interested layperson and the trained archaeologist the developmental sequence and boundaries of an expansive polity where this sequence and those boundaries involve the complex processes of domination and ideology." (p. 2). Cahokia, occupied from about AD 1000–1600, held at its height somewhere in the range of 10,000–18,000 people, situated in the curve of the alluvial flats where the Mississippi River meets the Missouri, called the American Bottom. Its architecture included at least 100 mounds, circular, rectangular, large and small. The most spectacular is Monk’s Mound, 291 by 236 meters at its base and 30 m high, organized in four stepped terraces.
Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World, edited by Timothy R. Pauketat and Thomas E. Emerson, present thirteen essays on different topics, "to establish for the interested layperson and the trained archaeologist the developmental sequence and boundaries of an expansive polity where this sequence and those boundaries involve the complex processes of domination and ideology." (p. 2). Cahokia, occupied from about AD 1000–1600, held at its height somewhere in the range of 10,000–18,000 people, situated in the curve of the alluvial flats where the Mississippi River meets the Missouri, called the American Bottom. Its architecture included at least 100 mounds, circular, rectangular, large and small. The most spectacular is Monk’s Mound, 291 by 236 meters at its base and 30 m high, organized in four stepped terraces.
A circle of large wooden posts, called a woodhenge because of its likely astronomical use, was of central importance to the inhabitants, and was rebuilt at least three times. In addition to the thousands living within a few miles of the city itself, evidence for trade and interaction in the form of Cahokia-manufactured items and styles are found as far north as central Minnesota, as far west as eastern Kansas, as far south as Mississippi, and as far east as Tennessee. Craft production in the town of Cahokia included arrowheads, axe-heads, shell beads, carved-stone figurines, and copper ornaments, typically manufactured from exotic (non-local) materials.
A distinctive pottery style, red slipped or highly burnished ceramics, was made at Cahokia, and copies and originals are found far from the American Bottom. It is partly because of the wide-spread trade interactions that it is difficult to determine what modern tribes are descended from Cahokian peoples; Pauketat and Emerson suggest that Cahokians were ancestral to several Siouan-speaking ethnic groups.
A distinctive pottery style, red slipped or highly burnished ceramics, was made at Cahokia, and copies and originals are found far from the American Bottom. It is partly because of the wide-spread trade interactions that it is difficult to determine what modern tribes are descended from Cahokian peoples; Pauketat and Emerson suggest that Cahokians were ancestral to several Siouan-speaking ethnic groups.
Crops cultivated by Cahokians were diverse, and included corn, chenopodium, knotweed, maygrass, little barley, marsh elder, sunflower, squash, gourd, tobacco, and perhaps amaranth. In addition, they probably tended wild bean, panic grass, and black nightshade; they may have also grown persimmon and sumac trees. The domesticated crops were grown in fields, perhaps the most extensive field system in eastern North America. Substantial quantities of deer, small mammals and a wide variety of fish and birds have been found in the faunal collections at the site.
Each chapter in Cahokia presents topics like these, in detail and with graphic representations of the data. The introduction provides a little background and history into Cahokia; the conclusion sums up the book, and speculates on what happened when Cahokia’s power decreased and the population moved out.
Each chapter in Cahokia presents topics like these, in detail and with graphic representations of the data. The introduction provides a little background and history into Cahokia; the conclusion sums up the book, and speculates on what happened when Cahokia’s power decreased and the population moved out.
The intervening chapters include one on political economy, by Pauketat; on food production by Neil Lopinot; on faunal exploitation by Lucretia Kelly; on the building process by Rinita A. Dalan; on population dynamics by Pauketat and Lopinot; on settlement patterns by James M. Collins; on the political power base held by Cahokia over rural agriculturalists by Emerson; on the Cahokian ideology, particularly as expressed through figurines, ceramic decoration, and other concrete elements of symbolism by Emerson; on a comparison between Cahokia and the Moundville site in Alabama by Vernon James Knight, Jr.; and the role of Cahokia in the evolution of the southeastern Mississippian society by David Anderson.
Ironically, vibration from large semi trucks passing by the site on the highway, the construction of which produced the data for this book, continue to damage the site. But the book is the legacy of the highway, and the article authors have done an excellent job of conveying the power and complexity of the site and society at Cahokia. While the language is occasionally a bit technical for the layperson, the data assembled here make the book well worth the extra effort.
Ironically, vibration from large semi trucks passing by the site on the highway, the construction of which produced the data for this book, continue to damage the site. But the book is the legacy of the highway, and the article authors have done an excellent job of conveying the power and complexity of the site and society at Cahokia. While the language is occasionally a bit technical for the layperson, the data assembled here make the book well worth the extra effort.
