Join the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures Afternoon Anthropology lecture series where Dr. Erin Nelson from the University of South Alabama will speak on "Exploring Communities and Expanding Archaeological Practice."

Abstract:

For many decades, attempts to explain the social organization of Native American people of the Southeastern United States during the Mississippi period (AD 1050-1550) were dominated by the chiefdom model. More recently, however, archaeologists have come to realize that Mississippian communities were structurally far more diverse than we’ve recognized, and furthermore, that social structures cannot be understood outside of the historical processes and negotiations that created them – people moved around, adopted new ideas, negotiated new identities, and transformed their communities in the process. Drawing on examples from the Lower Mississippi Valley and the northern Gulf Coast, this talk explores diverse processes of community-building among Mississippian people and examines new methods of exploring community-building archaeologically. Archaeological data, ethnohistory, and consultation with representatives from modern tribal nations all suggest that Mississippian people organized themselves in a multitude of ways that gave meaning and structure to their lives.