Award Date
5-1-2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Anthropology
First Committee Member
Debra Martin
Second Committee Member
William Jankowiak
Third Committee Member
Barbara Roth
Fourth Committee Member
Sheila Bock
Number of Pages
175
Abstract
Cultures have responded to periods of crisis and rapid change in many ways through time and space, with anthropological research often at the forefront of thinking about the social, cultural, and ecological strategies and adaptations employed in times of change and transformation. While strategies may include cultural innovation, increased social networking, and alliance formation, there are also cases where ritual violence, inter- and intra-population conflict, and population movement serve as strategic responses to crisis. The Archaic Period (10-3,000 BP), regionally located in the Southeastern U.S., is characterized by numerous major environmental and ecological changes, with periods of major flooding, variability in climate and local flora/fauna, as well as major cultural shifts in trade and technology. There is little doubt that these changes also stimulated ideological adjustments which can be seen in the archaeological record. The goal of this study is to understand how these changes in ideology led to the emergence and intensification of ritual violence during the Late Archaic Period of this region, and how this contributed to broader transformations in cultural processes and daily-life within these groups. While research has focused on the later Woodland and Mississippian Periods, understanding what came before these larger settled, and often agricultural communities, provides important temporal insight into how major changes were dealt with in small scale foraging societies. It is these early precontact groups which provide the greatest heuristic insight into the history and development of early Southeastern Native American groups in relation to social and cultural changes associated with emergent complexity such as trade, ritual, large scale violence, and identity structures. Expanding on previously collected osteological data from this region, a bioarchaeological approach is used to focus on the shell funerary mound sites located in the Middle Tennessee River Valley (MTRV) of North Alabama in order to investigate how ritualized violence was entwined with other behaviors relating to settlement patterns and daily life both synchronically and diachronically. These results will contribute to understanding the ways that ritual and social violence are used during times of cultural crisis to promote cohesion and integration.
Keywords
Archaic Period; Bioarchaeology; Identity; Precontact Southeastern US; Ritual Violence
Disciplines
Archaeological Anthropology
File Format
File Size
4800 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Simpson, Diana Sherman, "Cultural Crisis, Performance and Ritual: A Bioarchaoelogy of Violence in Early Precontact North Alabama (8,000-3,000 BP)" (2024). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 5082.
http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/37650908
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/