The Concept of Personhood in a Mississippian Society

Illinois Archaeology Vol. 21, 2009166

Michael Strezewski, University of Southern Indiana, 8600 University Boulevard, Evansville, IN 47712, [email protected]

©2009 Illinois Archaeological Survey, Inc., Illinois Archaeology, vol. 21, pp.166–190

166

The Concept of Personhood in a Mississippian Society

Michael Strezewski

Analysis of Mississippian mortuary data from seven sites in the Central Illinois River val-ley indicates that a particular suite of grave goods are found with children less than eight years of age. These items include shell beads, marine shell pendants, and antler bracelets. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric data suggest that these patterns may be related to commonly held notions of personhood in the Eastern Woodlands and eastern Plains. It is suggested that around the age of eight, Mississippian children began the process of becoming fully constituted “persons.” Beads may have been included with young juveniles to protect them on their journey to the afterlife and to confer group membership on those who were not fully constituted members of society.

The anthropological notion of “personhood” is defined as a culturally conceived category of being (Conklin and Morgan 1996:658; Fowler 2004:155; Gillespie 2001:82) that consists of “qualities, capacities, and roles” that are expected of an individual (Fortes 1987). Personhood is a mutually constituted phenomenon—one that occurs only in relation to other members of the group, and one that is constantly constituted and reconstituted throughout the lifetime of the indi-vidual (Conklin and Morgan 1996:660; Fowler 2004:7). Individuals typically pass through various stages of personhood through their lifetimes, and one’s person-hood may even survive beyond death, in the role of an “ancestor” (Fowler 2004:7).

In many non-Western societies, personhood is thought of as being “relational”—that is, dependent to a great extent on the establishment and maintenance of autonomous social ties with others. Cultures that use a system of relational personhood also com-monly stress the development of cultural competency as a key factor in the attainment of personhood. Attainment of these goals is a matter of learning such things as proper behavior, religious beliefs, and linguistic mastery. In short, being a person is a result of being a full participant in the social and cultural world. In cultures with systems of relational personhood, individuals without community ties and social relationships and responsibilities cannot be fully constituted persons, no matter what their age.

Strezewski 167

Relational notions of personhood lie in contrast to the Western understanding of this concept, which instead stresses self-reliance, social autonomy, and independence from others (Conklin and Morgan 1996:664). In this manner of conceiving personhood, individuals are viewed as bounded, autonomous units, and community relationships are considered more like “glue for linking individuals to one another” rather than constituting an essential element in the creation and maintenance of the body/person (Conklin and Morgan 1996:661, 664). Western cultures typically conceive of personhood as something bestowed upon an individual simply as a result of being. As a result, the question “Who is a person?” doesn’t make much sense to the average American, since one is felt to be a person by virtue of one’s material existence as a biological organism. The United States is held up as the quintessential example of an individualistic society that perceives social relations as having little to do with the status of being a person. Though a certain view of personhood may be predominant within a particular society, it must be acknowledged that this dichotomy is not absolute. Elements of individualistic and relational notions of personhood can be recognized in any society.

As might be expected, many cultures that work within systems of relational per-sonhood do not perceive the transition from nonperson to person as a singular event. Though a series of rituals are often used as benchmarks to set off certain kinds of per-sons from others (Conklin and Morgan 1996:659, 677), the attainment of personhood is largely a processual phenomenon—that is, acquired over a period of time through interaction with other members of community. Individuals begin life with minimal social relations and cultural experiences. Gradually, through time, networks of social relationships and subtle cultural competencies are developed, eventually culminating in a fully participating and knowledgeable individual actor. Relations with places, things, and the spiritual world are also often considered critical to the attainment of full person-hood (Fowler 2004:7). In this type of system, personhood can exist in varying degrees. Under some conditions, personhood can be lost, as well.

The current study is an attempt to integrate the anthropological understanding of personhood into an archaeological case study and to demonstrate how this under-standing is crucial to the interpretation of mortuary data. Despite the implications for understanding the nature of prehistoric societies, with few exceptions (e.g., Fowler 2001, 2004; Gillespie 2001; Jones 2002; Palkovich 1980), archaeologists have not often addressed questions of prehistoric personhood.

In terms of mortuary analyses, an archaeology of the person complements the goals and perspectives that have been common for the past 35 years. Early processual-era mortuary studies typically focused on identifying forms of social organization and various vertical or horizontal statuses within the population as a whole (e.g., Binford 1971; Brown 1971; Goldstein 1980; Peebles and Kus 1977; Saxe 1970). In many of these studies, those grave goods made of rare or imported materials had been seen as especially important in answering questions of social position, relative wealth, and group affiliation. This approach remains the dominant voice in American mortuary studies (Rakita and Buikstra 2005:5). While one role of grave goods may have been to mark various social positions in society, the mere fact that an artifact was manufactured from


imported materials does not necessarily mean that its primary or sole “function” was to indicate rank or status (Prentice 1987:196). Artifacts can have multiple simultaneous meanings (Thomas 1996), and it is contingent upon the archaeologist to examine all that may be teased out.

While acknowledging the continued value of the search for social organization in the past, graves are more than a reflection of social groups and wealth. Factors such as religious belief and worldview may have an equal or greater impact on the burial program as we see it in the archaeological record (see, e.g., Carr 1995). An archaeology of person-hood is one aspect of understanding prehistoric social organization, since the attainment of full personhood has both rank and status implications in relation to other persons. Personhood, however, is more that just the sum of all statuses (Gillespie 2001:82; La Fontaine 1985:133). It is a culturally recognized state of being which is acknowledged by other members of society and is attained by virtue of one’s full participation in it. In this sense, the search for prehistoric ideas about personhood falls under the study of social organization, but at the same time, it is different, as it takes into consideration the emic systems of categorizing people that were in place in prehistory.

One analytical practice that tends to confound the search for personhood in the past is the reliance on Western age categories as a basis for analysis. Burials are often grouped by archaeologists into “children,” “adolescents,” and “adults” for analytical purposes, based on criteria such as skeletal and dental development. Methodologies such as these give little regard for how a given culture may have divided individuals of differing age. Age-based categories such as “child” and “adult” are cultural constructs that must be discovered rather than assumed, and ethnographic evidence indicates that there is considerable cross-cultural variability in how childhood is defined (Kamp 2001:3). By relying solely on Western etic age divisions in mortuary analyses, cultural categories may be obscured, and important patterns may be blurred or overlooked. Understanding how an archaeological culture defined who was a “child” and who was an “adult” is the first step toward a more fruitful analysis of burial populations. The skeletal remains of adults are more difficult to age precisely and can be grouped only into broad categories. However, juveniles can be broken down into much finer divisions, thereby providing a means to address this issue with some clarity.

The current study is one attempt at creating a preliminary understanding of per-sonhood in the past, with the understanding that grave goods may have served as one means of marking different cultural categories of personhood. The focus of the analysis is the Mississippian cultures of the Central Illinois River valley. Extensive research in this area over the last 90 years has resulted in the identification of at least seven large habitation sites containing one or more platform mounds, as well as smaller villages, farmsteads, and extractive camps (Conrad 1991:120; Harn 1994). The residents of the Central Illinois River valley appear to have been full participants in the Mississippian way of life, both in terms of subsistence and worldview (Conrad 1991).

The burial sample used for the current analysis consists of 841 individuals from eight mortuary sites in the Central Illinois River valley (Figure 1). These sites cover the entire range of Mississippian occupation in the Central Illinois River valley, spanning the

Strezewski 169

period A.D. 1000–1425 (Conrad 1991; Esarey 2000:397; Esarey and Conrad 1998:53) (Table 1). The sites were excavated between 1927 and 1966 (Table 2) and consist of both mounded and nonmounded (cemetery) contexts. Three sites (Morton, Crable, and Dickson) were professionally excavated in whole or part, while the remaining five (Florey, Weaver Fo228, Weaver Fo914, Shryock, and Emmons) were dug by various amateurs whose level of recordkeeping was sufficient to allow reconstruction of the cemeteries with some accuracy. Burial associations were reconstructed based on the notes, maps, and photographs of the excavators. Although the excavations were not up to modern day standards in terms of the notes and excavation methods, all eight sites had adequate information to make a reasonably accurate discussion of the mortuary practices possible. Full descriptions of the mortuary sites and burials can be found in Conrad (1972), Harn (1980), and Strezewski (2003).

Figure 1. Location of the mortuary sites used in the analysis.Figure 1. Location of the mortuary sites used in the analysis.


Methods

The author obtained age and sex information for each of those individuals that were available for observation (Table 3). Sexing and ageing techniques used generally fol-lowed those outlined in Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994) (see Strezewski 2003:346–347). Adults for which an age could be determined were divided into three broad categories: young adult (20–34 years), middle-aged adult (35–49 years), and old adult (≥50 years). Juvenile ages were described as an age span (e.g., 5–8 years), based on such criteria as dental development (Bass 1987:289–290), degree of epiphyseal closure (Brothwell 1981:Figure 3.4; Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994:Figure 20; Ubelaker 1989:Table 16), and longbone length (Bass 1987). Due to the high calcium oxide content of the loessal soils along the Illinois River bluffs (Harn 1980:9), nearly all of the skeletons were in an excellent state of preservation, a situation that allowed fairly accurate ageing and sexing of the material, when present.

Two circumstances prevented all of the skeletal material from being reexamined. In the case of Dickson Mounds, data from published sources (Conrad 1972; Harn 1980) were used because the skeletal material was not available for study. The published estimates were made by a professional archaeologist and are considered reliable. The remaining 179 individuals (21.3%) were not present in the collections, most often due to the fact that they were not collected in the field. For example, Donald Wray, an amateur who excavated the Weaver, Shryock, and Florey sites, often did not retain all the skeletal material from his work. Unfortunately, in these cases, the age and sex estimations in the notes of the excavators were the only information available. Though fifty-year-old amateur assessments of age and sex are, without a doubt, less reliable than those of a modern professional, it was found that, when the skeletal material was pres-ent for observation, more often than not, the excavators’ estimations most often agreed fairly well with those of the author. This was especially true in terms of the excavators’ sex estimations. Overall, of the 841 burials used in this study, 662 (78.7%) were aged and sexed by a professional archaeologist (338 by the author and 324 by Conrad [1972] or Harn [1980]).

Phase Begins Ends

Mossville A.D. 1000 A.D. 1100

Eveland A.D. 1100 A.D. 1175–1200

Orendorf A.D. 1175–1200 A.D. 1250?

Larson A.D. 1250? A.D. 1300?

Crable and Bold Counselor A.D. 1300–1325 A.D. 1425

* Adapted from Esarey 2000:397 and Esarey and Conrad 1998:53

Table 1. Central Illinois River Valley Mississippian Phases (in Calendar Years).

Strezewski 171

Site

Num

ber

of

Indi

vidu

als

Site

Typ

eP

hase

Rep

rese

nted

Ref

eren

ces

Flor

ey17

Cem

eter

yM

ossv

ille

Wra

y an

d M

acN

eish

195

8; S

trez

ewsk

i 200

3

Dic

kson

16M

ound

Eve

land

Con

rad

1972

; Har

n 19

80

Wea

ver

(FO

228)

118

Mou

ndO

rend

orf

Wra

y ca

. 193

6, c

a. 1

938a

, 193

8b; W

ray

and

Mac

Nei

sh 1

958,

196

1; S

trez

ewsk

i 200

3

Wea

ver

(FC

914)

26C

emet

ery

Ore

ndor

fW

ray

and

Mac

Nei

sh 1

958,

196

1; S

trez

ewsk

i 200

3

Shry

ock

109

Cem

eter

yO

rend

orf

Wra

y ca

. 193

5, c

a. 1

940,

ca.

194

1; S

trez

ewsk

i 200

3

Mor

ton

111

Mou

ndL

arso

nC

ole

and

Deu

el 1

937;

Str

ezew

ski 2

003

Dic

kson

308

Mou

ndL

arso

nC

onra

d 19

72; H

arn

1980

Tabl

e 2.

Sit

es U

sed

in th

e A

naly

sis,

Bro

ken

Dow

n by

Pha

se D

esig

nati

on.


Flor

ey

FC91

1W

eave

r FO

228

Wea

ve

FC91

4rSh

ryoc

k FC

904

Mor

ton

F014

Dic

kson

* FO

34E

mm

ons

FC79

6C

rabl

e Fo

892,

FO

894,

FC

896

Tota

ls

Juve

nile

658

941

4614

823

2735

8

Youn

g ad

ult (

20–3

4 ye

ars)

324

913

3347

819

156

Mid

dle-

aged

adu

lt (3

5–49

yea

rs)

215

414

1373

1110

142

Old

adu

lt (5

0+ y

ears

)0

61

44

310

349

Adu

lt6

143

379

2425

412

2

Unk

now

n0

10

06

13

314

Tota

ls17

118

2610

911

132

470

6684

1

* D

ata

com

pile

d fr

om H

arn

(198

0) a

nd C

onra

d (1

972)

Tabl

e 3.

Cen

tral

Illi

nois

Val

ley

Bur

ials

Use

d in

the

Ana

lysi

s.

Strezewski 173

All grave goods that were available for study were also reexamined. In the case of those that were not available (e.g., Dickson Mounds), available notes and drawings were used.

Results

Despite the relatively large span of time covered by the Mississippian occupations in the Central Illinois Valley, it was found that certain suites of artifacts were consistently associated with specific age groupings. One of the clearest patterns is that which dif-ferentiates juveniles less than about eight years of age from adults and older juveniles (see Strezewski 2003:241–244). Artifacts most commonly found with younger juveniles include beads (of most raw materials and type), Busycon shell pendants, and “bracelets” made of a strip of antler (see Harn 1980:Figures 11, 13, and 14). Other goods were more commonly found with adults and juveniles older than about eight years, and are only infrequently included with young juveniles. These include such items as carnivore canines and canine effigies, bifacial knives, projectile points, ankle shell rattles, earspools, bone hairpins, pipes, and toolkits. The following discussion focuses on those artifacts commonly associated with young children and addresses the cultural, ideational, and religious implications of these burial inclusions.

Beads

Beads were categorized by raw material and bead shape (Table 4). For the purpose of this analysis, cut marine shell beads have been divided into three general categories: small disc beads, large disc beads, and globular beads. As the name implies, disc beads are circular, with a hole drilled near the center. Small disc beads are tiny, usually less than 1 cm in diameter, while large disc beads are generally about 2 cm in diameter. Both types were cut from the outer whorl of the shell. Globular beads are larger, spherical to barrel-shaped marine shell beads made from cut sections of the columella (see Harn 1980:Figure 11 for examples of each). Though less common, beads manufactured from small, whole marine shells (Olivella and Marginella) were also identified, as were beads manufactured from freshwater snail shells and pearls. Some burials contained more than one type of bead.

Beads were found with 54 of the 841 burials. Of these, 30 were juveniles less than eight years of age. The beads were typically found around the shoulders and necks of individuals, suggesting that they were worn at the time of interment. Beads were oc-casionally found at the hand as well, suggesting that they were also used as bracelets. The preferential inclusion of beads with young juveniles was found to be highly sig-nificant (X2=12.98, df=3, p≤.005). Yerkes (1989:115) noted this same pattern a number


Adu

lt M

ales

Adu

lt Fe

mal

esJu

veni

les

(≥8)

Juve

nile

s (<

8)U

nkno

wn

Adu

ltU

nkno

wn

Age

or

Sex

Glo

bula

r be

ads

41

34

00

Lar

ge d

isc

bead

s1

20

60

1

Smal

l dis

c be

ads

24

212

10

Oliv

ella

bea

ds1

00

70

0

Mar

gine

lla b

eads

00

02

00

Snai

l she

ll be

ads

00

11

00

Shel

l (un

know

n ty

pe)

31

14

00

Pea

rl b

eads

10

02

00

Tota

l12

87

381

1

Per

cent

age

of c

ases

*17

.611

.810

.355

.91.

51.

5

Num

ber

of in

divi

dual

s re

pres

ente

d10

75

301

1

Per

cent

age

of in

divi

dual

s w

ith b

eads

5.0

3.8

7.9

12.4

1.2

7.1

* So

me

indi

vidu

als

wer

e bu

ried

with

mor

e th

an o

ne b

ead

type

. Thi

s ro

w tr

eats

eac

h in

stan

ce o

f a p

artic

ular

bea

d ty

pe in

divi

dual

ly

Tabl

e 4.

Cas

es o

f She

ll an

d Pe

arl B

eads

by

Age

and

Sex

.

Strezewski 175

of years ago in his examination of the Dickson Mounds data, but he did not attempt to explain it.

Examining Table 4, it is apparent that the only strong exception to the abovemen-tioned pattern is globular beads, which are more often associated with adult males and older juveniles (of undetermined sex). In most cases, globular beads were found in the chest, head, or neck area, although in two cases they were found at the wrist and most likely made up part of a bracelet. Considering their presence at the head/neck area, it is possible that some of these beads were forelock beads, similar to those commonly rendered in Mississippian Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) art. On the shell engravings from Spiro at least, these beads are depicted as being oval or spherical in shape, similar to those noted in the Central Illinois River valley (Phillips and Brown 1978:83). Forelock beads are believed to have been used to denote warrior status (Dye 2004:195, 200), a fact which may explain their presence with adult males.

Busycon Pendants

Harn (1980:26), in his analysis of a portion of the Dickson population, first noted the preferential burial of Busycon pendants with juveniles. It is clear that this pattern per-sists at other Mississippian sites in the Central Illinois Valley. The Busycon pendants are typically fashioned from an immature shell and are often grooved around the tip for suspension (e.g., Harn 1980:Figure 13). The pendants range in length from about 4 to 10 cm. All of the Busycon pendants for which reliable information is available were located on the chest or shoulder area, suggesting that they were worn by the individual when interred. Fourteen of the 24 Busycon pendants associated with burials were found with juveniles younger than eight years of age. One pendant was found with an older juvenile approximately 12 years of age. Other, nonjuvenile associations include a middle-aged adult male from the Emmons site, who was found with four pendants placed on the chest. This individual was also buried with a number of status-indicating items, including a copper-covered wooden mask (Morse et al. 1961). Two adult males and three adult females were found with a single Busycon pendant each.

Antler Bracelets

Bracelets were made from a rectangular ground section of antler that was bent and fastened around the wrist by means of holes drilled at the edge (Henning 1993:258). Eight of the 10 bracelets were found with juveniles younger than eight years of age. The remaining two bracelets were found with a young adult female and a juvenile about 16 years of age, possibly female. The presence of these artifacts in the Central Illinois River valley suggests contact with, or influence from the eastern Plains (Conrad 1991:141), since similar artifacts have been identified in Mill Creek (Fugle 1962:Figures 11 and 24) and Upper Republican phase (Strong 1935:111, Plate 10(2); W. Wedel 2001:Figure 5c) contexts. Although identical to the Central Illinois valley examples, Wedel (2001:179) identifies these artifacts as bowguards, rather than bracelets. Their absence from adult


male burials in the Central Illinois River valley argues against this interpretation, how-ever, and suggests instead that they may be a form of nonutilitarian adornment.

Although it is probable that these artifacts were the personal possessions of the ju-veniles with whom they were buried, some of the Central Illinois Valley antler bracelets seem too large to have been children’s everyday attire, a fact that suggests that they may have been goods contributed by an adult. If this is the case, their near-absence among adult burials indicates that, for some reason, they were not considered proper grave goods for adults.

Events in the Life of a Child

Evidence for the association of a specific suite of mortuary artifacts with young juveniles begs the question: What sort of personal or social transformation must have occurred in the life of an individual at or about eight years of age that is reflected in a switch from one suite of grave goods to another? Though archaeological information on the lives of children is quite limited, ethnohistoric and ethnographic data from the Eastern Woodlands and eastern Plains provide the needed background for interpreting the burial data. Analysis of these data indicate remarkably broad similarities in the events leading from childhood to adulthood, a fact that suggests that these practices have a deep past and can be reliably assumed to have taken place in prehistory.

Two particular sets of events seem to have been critical in the transformation from infant to adult. The first occurred primarily between the age of birth to one year. At this age, the child’s ears were pierced (e.g., [Kansa] Bailey and Young 2001:467; [Ojibwa] Hilger 1951:20; [Huron] Tooker 1964:123) and a naming ceremony was held ([Ottawa] Kinietz 1940:277; [Osage] La Flesche 1928; [Ho-Chunk] Radin 1970:79–80). Often, the child’s name was selected by an elderly member of the clan, via a dream ([Shawnee, Miami] Callender 1978a:626, 1978c:683; [Ojibwa] Densmore 1929:53; [Delaware] Newcomb 1956:33). This was considered the first important event in a child’s life.

The overt purpose of the naming ceremony was to terminate the ambiguous social status of infancy and to formally fix the child’s clan and tribal membership ([Osage] Bai-ley 2001:485; [Omaha] Fletcher and La Flesche 1911:115; [Ottawa] Kinietz 1940:277). Among some groups, particularly those of the eastern Plains, boys were given distinctive clan haircuts at the time of the naming ceremony ([Ponca] Brown and Irwin 2001:422; [Omaha] Fletcher and La Flesche 1911; [Osage] La Flesche 1928:Plates 9 and 10; [Oto] Miller 2000:125) that served to make a public statement regarding the child’s clan af-filiation. In a sense, the naming ceremony seems to have signified the “social birth” of the child within the community—a first step toward personhood.

The second set of events occurred around puberty (e.g., [Osage] Bailey and Young 2001:467; [Ojibwa] Kinietz 1940:326; [Delaware] Newcomb 1956:35–36; [Menominee] Skinner 1913:42–43; [Iowa] M. Wedel 2001:439). At this time, boys (and sometimes girls, depending on the group) were instructed to build a small shelter in the woods, away from the village. While in isolation, the youth blackened his or her face, underwent

Strezewski 177

an extended period of fasting (8 to 10 days for the Menominee, for example [Skinner 1913:42]), and prayed for a supernatural vision of a guardian spirit. If successful in this rite of passage, the youth would rejoin society as an adult and fully constituted person within society. The guardian spirit acquired during fasting continued to watch over an individual for the remainder of his or her life and provided certain abilities to the person. For example, among the Menominee, boys who had received guardian spirits from the Upper World (e.g., the sun, moon, or thunderbirds) were thought have great hunting ability as a result. Girls who dreamed of Upper World spirits were to have a long life, happiness, and virtue (Skinner 1913:42–43). Persons who were unsuccess-ful in acquiring a guardian spirit were considered to be most unfortunate ([Delaware] Newcomb 1956:62). Clearly, the establishment of a “social connection” to the spirit world was also held as key to the attainment of full personhood.

Though the widespread existence of these two benchmarks in the path toward adulthood is well documented in the ethnohistoric literature, this fact does little to explain the age-related division of mortuary goods as noted in Mississippian period Central Illinois River valley mortuary populations. Nonetheless, a close inspection of the ethnohistoric literature provides some insight into a series of changes that took place at or around the age of interest—that is, roughly eight years of age.

A variety of sources indicate that about this age, children began the process of becoming an adult (i.e., a fully constituted person). It was at this time that they started to practice the cultural, spiritual, and economic skills that were needed for full cultural competency. The key event seems to be the point at which it was felt that the child was able to imitate and learn adult behavior (Howard 1965:145). Boys were often given a toy bow and instructed to go into the woods and practice hunting ([Mesquakie] Callender 1978b:638; [Western Abnaki] Day 1978:153; [Ojibwa] Densmore 1929:65; [Delaware] Goddard 1978:219; [Ottawa] Kinietz 1940:277; [Delaware] Tooker 1964:124–125). Simi-larly, girls were instructed by an older woman in gender-appropriate activities such as wood gathering, gardening, and food preparation ([Ojibwa] Densmore 1929:65; [Omaha] Dorsey 1884:265; [Delaware] Newcomb 1956:34; [Huron] Tooker 1964:124–125).

At this time, the child also began to acquire the spiritual skills needed to successfully complete the multiple-day fast that accompanied the quest for a guardian spirit. Boys, in particular, were subjected to “practice fasts” at about this age (e.g., [Omaha] Dorsey 1884:265; [Ojibwa] Hilger 1951:39–40). Very young Sauk boys, for example, were not given breakfast, and older boys were given only one meal a day (Skinner 1923:32). The child gradually worked its way up to the multiple-day fast that was required for the acquisition of a guardian spirit and, as a result, full personhood. Other forms of physi-cal privation, such as rolling in snow or bathing in cold water, were begun at about this time as well ([Delaware] Newcomb 1956:34; [Menominee] Spindler 1978:718).

The fact that, at this age, the child was increasingly viewed as a fully-realized person-in becoming is made most apparent by examining notions of appropriate punishment for various-aged children. A number of accounts mention that it was felt to be inappropriate to physically punish children who were younger than the “age of reason,” which in the


case of the Ojibwa, was reckoned at about five years of age (Hilger 1951:39–40). It was noted that “for more serious offenses . . . children older than five years—but never babies, one, two, or three years old—were switched or slapped” (Hilger 1951:59). Similarly, Menominee children were never physically punished until they were eight years old (Skinner 1913:41). A child who had reached the age of reason was felt to be old enough to answer for his or her actions and had a degree of cultural competency such that he or she should know better. Among some groups, the child’s haircut was changed to that of an adult at about this age, representing a change from child to proto-adult. Omaha boys wore their clan haircut “until the adult dentition began to come in. Then the hair was allowed to grow, and the scalp lock, the sign of the warrior . . . was parted off and kept carefully braided” (Fletcher and La Flesche 1911:128). All these signs clearly indicate that although there were ritual benchmarks associated with the attainment of adulthood, the transition to a socially, culturally, and spiritually integrated person was conceived as a process that began at an earlier point in time.

Adoption, Beads, and Group Membership

Though it is apparent from the mortuary data that Mississippian peoples of the Central Illinois valley preferentially placed beads with the burials of young juveniles, the imme-diate reasons behind this practice are not clear. In most mortuary analyses, the presence of marine shell beads in juvenile burials has been framed as evidence for ascribed status, family wealth, or gifts from the mourners (Trubitt 2003:261). Marine shell beads, hav-ing been manufactured of exotic, and therefore precious, raw materials, are typically treated as a reflection of social status, economic status, or both, indicating greater or lesser power, prestige, and wealth (e.g., Hammett and Sizemore 1989; Prentice 1987; Thomas 1996:30). Indeed, marine shell beads are not particularly common overall in Central Illinois River valley burials, and those individuals who were interred with them may have been from lineages or families with greater influence or wealth. Typically, mortuary analyses have focused on the quantity or quality of the beads as a means of ranking an individual’s relative wealth or social position. Though the quantity of beads included with a particular individual may have something to do with kin-group wealth and influence (e.g., the large quantities of marine shell found with high-status individu-als at Mound 72 and Wilson Mound in the Cahokia area [Fowler et al. 1999; Milner 1984:480]), inquiries into the symbolic meaning of beads have been less intensively examined (Pietak 1998:135). The question remains—why were beads preferred grave goods for juveniles and not, for example, well-made bifacial knives? Since the answer to this question is much more difficult to discern archaeologically, it is, to some degree, understandable that the topic is understudied (Pietak 1998:135; Trubitt 2003:264).

The literature on the traditional symbolism of beads indicates that they held many different meanings. Beads were thought to symbolize such things as peace, fertility, ritual purity, well-being, spirituality, life, the supernatural, protection against disease, and the restoration of health (Hamell 1996:51; Miller and Hamell 1986:318; Pietak

Strezewski 179

1998; Snyder 1999:368). Though this list encompasses a wide variety of associations, it is clear that all of these associations were positive. Beads were “good to think” (Hamell 1996:51).

Though beads were thought to have positive symbolic connotations, a clear ethnographic association of beads with young children is not immediately apparent. A number of accounts mention that beads were often hung on the front of an infant’s cradleboard ([Ojibwa] Densmore 1929; [Ojibwa] Hilger 1951:23; [Huron] Kinietz 1940:91; [Ojibwa] Kohl 1985; [Menominee] Skinner 1913:35), presumably as a charm or form of amusement. This association, however, only accounts for the relatively short period during which the cradleboard was used (two to three years in the case of the Miami and Ottawa [Kinietz 1940:202, 276]). In addition, the placement of beads in the grave, in many cases, clearly indicates that they were worn around the neck or wrist, rather than attached to an otherwise decomposed cradleboard. In short, a superficial reading of the ethnohistoric literature does little to explain a preference for the preferential interment of beads with young juveniles.

However, in the Eastern Woodlands, beads were also used in the context of “rituals of creation and re-creation, resuscitation, and the continuity of life” (Miller and Hamell 1986:318), and it is perhaps within this role that their association with young children can be best understood. One such ritual, the adoption ceremony, was commonplace in the Eastern Woodlands and was performed as a means to ceremonially replace a deceased relative by creating kinship bonds between two otherwise unrelated individuals (Hall 1997:57). Ultimately, performance of the adoption ceremony was designed to assure that the deceased was able to safely navigate the path of the dead to the land of the afterworld ([Kickapoo] Latorre and Latorre 1976:264; [Tutelo] Speck 1942:10).

In some instances, the deceased was replaced by a captive, while in others, the adoptee was already a member of the group. In both cases, however, it is evident from ethnohistoric and ethnographic accounts that strings of beads played a large part in the ceremonial act of replacing a deceased relative. A description of the Huron in 1642, for example, indicates that during the ceremony, “he who brings the dead to life makes a present to him who is to take his place. He sometimes hangs a collar of porcelain beads around his neck” (Thwaites 1896–1901:22:289). In 1790, a Shawnee who was adopting a prisoner made “a belt of Wampums . . . which will be thrown over [the adoptee’s] head when he’s adopted and which he’ll ware” (Quaife 1921:346). Another account, this from the Mingo, relates that a man saved a white captive from death by placing a string of white wampum over his head (Holmes 1880–1881:248). Finally, as late at 1938, the Tutelo adoption ceremony included a strand of white beads that the adoptee wore while impersonating the deceased (Speck 1942:10).

Why, then, do beads play a large part in the adoption of a stranger to replace a deceased relative? The answer to this question likely has to do with the association of beads with “shared substance” (Hall 1989:255–256). Cultures that view the attainment of full personhood as a result of social relations often emphasize notions of shared substance—the belief that individuals can exchange substances between them, that particular substances are shared in common, and that these substances provide identity


to social groups (Conklin and Morgan 1996:668). We use the term “blood relative” in a similar, but nonliteral way. In many societies, the possession, redistribution, and circulation of these substances are crucial to the attainment and maintenance of personhood (Fowler 2004:6).

In the Eastern Woodlands, beads were used as a metaphor for the shared substance that linked the members of a clan, tribe, or other social group together. The six members of the Iroquois League, for example, were represented by a cornhusk mask with six bags of beads, located under the eyes, nose, and mouth, representing tears, mucus, and saliva (Hall 1989:255). Hanging beads around another’s neck was a means of establishing friendly intertribal relations via the creation of a fictive relationship (Hall 1997:57–58); those outside the community had to be transformed and given proper entry into the community through a process of social transformation or adoption (Hamell 1987:78). Hall (1997:58) has pointed out that the gift of beads to De Soto by the Mistress of Cofitachequi may have been an act designed to establish fictive kinship and, therefore, alliance.

This brings us back to the question: Why are beads found more often with young children? Since beads represent the shared substance of a particular social group, they therefore have “adoptive properties” and can be used as a means to assert group membership to those outside of it. Very young children, those younger than the “age of reason” (mentioned above), have not yet begun to establish the social autonomy and cultural competence that are required for full personhood. Children of this young age, in some ways, are considered outsiders, since they are not fully persons.

The spirit world, the final destination of the afterlife journey, was often thought of as being similar to this world, with villages, clans, and other social divisions present ([Wichita] Dorsey 1904:14; [Oto-Missouria] Schweitzer 2001:451; [Huron] Thwaites 1896–1901:30:23). Because it paralleled the world of the living, an individual who had made the final journey to the land of the spirits needed to have an active and unambiguous social position in society to be a “person.” Adults, most of whom were fully realized persons at the time of death, were active members of the social web of the community. Young children, however, were not, having died before those networks could be established. In this sense, their social group membership and, therefore, their personhood were still in the process of becoming. It is suggested here that one purpose for the inclusion of beads within young children’s graves may have been to provide a means to confirm or establish the social membership of an individual who died while in a sort of “social limbo” (Pietak 1998:153). Beads may have been used to ensure that, when the deceased individual reached the afterlife, his or her social group membership would be recognized. Marine shell pendants, although not specifically mentioned in the ethnohistoric literature, may have served a similar purpose as a symbol of shared substance.

Other symbolic associations of beads may have come into play here. Beads were also thought to provide knowledge, understanding, and protection (Pietak 1998:144; Thomas 1996:40). The youngest members of society (i.e., below the “age of reason”) were most vulnerable. The journey to the afterlife was one that was commonly thought

Strezewski 181

of as fraught with danger (Lankford 2004, 2007), and beads would have been one means for the grieving to ensure that the deceased child arrived safely.

Conclusions

Though published reports often are not specific enough to distinguish whether similar patterns of artifact association are present at other sites, it appears that the tendency to place beads with young juveniles is not exclusive to the Central Illinois River valley Mississippian. For example, different types of shell artifacts, including beads and shell pendants, were reportedly most commonly found with children at the Mississippian Schild site in the Lower Illinois River valley (Goldstein 1980:89; Perino 1971:100). Be-cause the published juvenile data were grouped for analysis (Goldstein 1980), it cannot be determined if these associations included mostly very young children or preadolescents in general. Others, looking at historic period mortuary data from the Eastern Wood-lands, have also noted a tendency to place marine shell beads with juveniles (Driscoll et al. 2001:144; Pietak 1998:141–146; Sempkowski 1989:89). At the Gordontown site, for example, all five instances of marine shell beads in the burial population were juveniles under the age of three (Moore et al. 2006:98). It is possible that similar notions of the symbolic meaning of beads were at work here and at other sites.

However, it must be pointed out that the association of shell beads with juveniles is by no means universal. Studies of burial populations at Mississippian sites such as Up-per Nodena (Fisher-Carroll 2001:Table 17), the Vernon Paul site (Gannon 2002:Table 25), Moundville (Prentice 1987:206), and a number of sites in the Carolina piedmont and mountains (Thomas 1996) have indicated no preference for including marine shell beads with children. Examples of historic period burial sites (Cowin 2003:10; Rodning 2001:88–89) can also be found. Clearly, beads did not carry the same connotations in burial contexts in all times and places. These examples, both pro and con, clearly show that there is no stock, invariable Late Prehistoric symbolic reading of beads that can be universally applied to Mississippian burial sites. Clearly, the significance of beads as grave goods (as well as other goods, for that matter) must be understood within a particular time and place. Shell beads had multiple symbolic connotations, and which of these was represented within a particular mortuary program seems to have been a matter of local tradition. Sometimes the notion of shared substance may have been emphasized, and sometimes other factors (e.g., wealth display) may have taken precedence.

Finally, studies like this one should make apparent that treating the concept of “juvenile” as a biological construct (based on skeletal age) without taking culturally determined age categories into consideration can only muddy the interpretive waters. Although physical changes occur as one matures, the cultural meaning ascribed to these changes is more arbitrary, and, in many societies, chronological age is less impor-tant than the perception of maturity in terms of linguistic, social, and overall cultural competency (Kamp 2001:3–4). Though investigations that address personhood and culturally specific notions of life stages are still in their infancy (Kamp 2001:8), in the


long run, tacit recognition of these factors should provide a means to better understand archaeological data in general and mortuary data in particular.

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to those who made this study possible. Terry Martin and the staff of the Illinois State Museum, Research and Collections Center; Alan Harn at Dickson Mounds Museum; and Della Cook at Indiana University were all of great help in lo-cating and providing access to the information needed to put all these old excavations back together again. Mary Beth Trubitt, Susan Alt, and an anonymous reviewer also provided positive feedback and helped hone the arguments presented here.

References Cited

Bailey, Garrick A. 2001 Osage. In Plains, edited by Raymond. J. DeMallie, pp. 476–496. Handbook

of North American Indians, Vol. 13, William C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Bailey, Garrick A., and Gloria A. Young 2001 Kansa. In Plains, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie, pp. 462–475. Handbook


Bass, William M. 1987 Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual, 3rd ed. Special Publications

of the Missouri Archaeological Society, No. 2., Columbia, Missouri.Binford, Lewis R. 1971 Mortuary Practices: Their Study and Their Potential. In Approaches to the

Study of Mortuary Practices, edited by James A. Brown, pp. 6–29. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 25, Washington, D.C.

Brothwell, Don R. 1981 Digging Up Bones: The Excavation, Treatment, and Study of Human Skeletal

Remains, 3rd ed. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.Brown, Donald N., and Lee Irwin 2001 Ponca. In Plains, edited by Raymond. J. DeMallie. pp. 416-431. Handbook


Brown, James A. 1971 Dimensions of Status in the Burials at Spiro. In Approaches to the Study of

Mortuary Practices, edited by James A. Brown, pp. 92–112. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 25, Washington, D.C.

Strezewski 183

Buikstra, Jane E., and Douglas H. Ubelaker 1994 Standards for Data Collection From Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archaeo-

logical Survey, Research Series No. 44. Fayetteville, Arkansas.Callender, Charles 1978a Shawnee. In Northeast, edited by Bruce J. Trigger, pp. 622–635. Handbook


1978b Fox. In Northeast, edited by Bruce J. Trigger, pp. 636–647. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15, William C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1978c Miami. In Northeast, edited by Bruce J. Trigger, pp. 681–689. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15, William C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Carr, Christopher 1995 Mortuary Practices: Their Social, Philosophical-Religious, Circumstantial,

and Physical Determinants. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 2(2):105–200.

Cole, Fay-Cooper, and Thorne Deuel 1937 Rediscovering Illinois: Archaeological Explorations in and Around Fulton County.

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Conklin, Beth A., and Lynn M. Morgan 1996 Babies, Bodies, and the Production of Personhood in North America and a

Native Amazonian Society. Ethos 24(4):657–694.Conrad, Lawrence A. 1972 1966 Excavations at the Dickson Mound: A Sepo-Spoon River Burial Mound

in the Central Illinois River Valley. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

1991 The Middle Mississippian Cultures of the Central Illinois River Valley. In Cahokia and the Hinterlands: Middle Mississippian Cultures of the Midwest, edited by Thomas E. Emerson and R. Barry Lewis, pp. 119–156. University of Il-linois Press, Urbana.

Cowin, Verna L. 2003 Two Historic Indian Cemeteries in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Ohio

Valley Historical Archaeology 18:5–23.Day, Gordon M. 1978 Western Abnaki. In Northeast, edited by Bruce J. Trigger, pp. 148–159. Hand-

book of North American Indians, Vol. 15, William C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Densmore, Frances 1929 Chippewa Customs. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 86. Washington,

D.C.


Dorsey, George A. 1904 The Mythology of the Wichita. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington,

D.C.Dorsey, James O. 1884 Omaha Sociology. 3rd Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,

pp. 205–370. Washington, D.C.Driscoll, Elizabeth M., R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr., and H. Trawick Ward 2001 Piedmont Siouans and Mortuary Archaeology on the Eno River, North Caro-

lina. In Archaeological Studies of Gender in the Southeastern United States, edited by Jane M. Eastman and Christopher B. Rodning, pp. 127–151. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Dye, David 2004 Art, Ritual, and Chiefly Warfare in the Mississippian World. In Hero, Hawk,

and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South, edited by Robert V. Sharp, pp. 191–206. Art Institute of Chicago.

Esarey, Duane 2000 The Late Woodland Maples Mills and the Mossville Phase Sequence in

the Central Illinois River Valley. In Late Woodland Societies: Tradition and Transformation Across the Midcontinent, edited by Thomas E. Emerson, Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier, pp. 387–412. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

Esarey, Duane, and Lawrence A. Conrad 1998 The Bold Counselor Phase of the Central Illinois Valley: Oneota’s Middle

Mississippian Margin. The Wisconsin Archeologist 79(2):38–61.Fisher-Carroll, Rita 2001 Mortuary Behavior at Upper Nodena. Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Research

Series No. 59. Fayetteville, Arkansas.Fletcher, Alice, and Francis La Flesche 1911 The Omaha Tribe. 27th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,

pp. 15–654. Washington, D.C.Fortes, Meyer 1987 On the Concept of the Person among the Tallensi. In Religion, Morality, and

the Person: Essays on Tallensi Religion, edited by Jack Goody, pp. 247–286. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Fowler, Chris 2001 Personhood and Social Relations in the British Neolithic With a Study From

the Isle of Man. Journal of Material Culture 6(2):137–163. 2004 The Archaeology of Personhood: An Anthropological Approach. Routledge, Lon-

don.

Strezewski 185

Fowler, Melvin, Jerome Rose, Barbara Vander Leest, and Steven Ahler 1999 The Mound 72 Area: Dedicated and Sacred Space in Early Cahokia. Illinois

State Museum, Reports of Investigations. No. 54. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.

Fugle, Eugene 1962 The Mill Creek Culture and Technology. Journal of the Iowa Archaeological

Society. 11(4):1–126.Gannon, Thomas N. 2002 A Mortuary Analysis of the Vernon Paul Site (3CS25): Sociopolitical Organization

at a Late Mississippian Site in Cross County, Arkansas. Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Gillespie, Susan D. 2001 Personhood, Agency, and Mortuary Ritual: A Case Study from the Ancient

Maya. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20:73–112.Goddard, Ives 1978 Delaware. In Northeast, edited by Bruce J. Trigger, pp. 213–239. Handbook


Goldstein, Lynne G. 1980 Mississippian Mortuary Practices: A Case Study of Two Cemeteries in the Lower

Illinois Valley. Northwestern University Archaeological Program, Scientific Papers No. 4. Northwestern University Archaeological Program, Evanston, Illinois.

Hall, Robert L. 1989 The Cultural Background of Mississippian Symbolism. In The Southeastern

Ceremonial Complex: Artifacts and Analysis, edited by Patricia Galloway, pp. 239–278. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

1997 An Archaeology of the Soul: North American Indian Belief and Ritual. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.

Hamell, George R. 1987 Strawberries, Floating Islands, and Rabbit Captains: Mythical Realities and

European Contact in the Northeast during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Journal of Canadian Studies 21(4):72–94.

1996 Wampum. In One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure, edited by Alexandra von Dongen, pp. 41–51. Museum Boymans, van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Hammett, Julia E., and Beverly A. Sizemore 1989 Shell Beads and Ornaments: Socioeconomic Indicators of the Past. In Pro-

ceedings of the 1986 Shell Bead Conference: Selected Papers, edited by Charles F. Hayes III, Lynn Ceci, and Connie C. Bodner, pp. 125–137. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Research Records No. 20. Rochester, New York.


Harn, Alan D. 1980 The Prehistory of Dickson Mounds: The Dickson Excavation. Illinois State Muse-

um, Reports of Investigations No. 35. Illinois State Museum, Springfield. 1994 Variation in Mississippian Settlement Patterns: The Larson Settlement System in

the Central Illinois River Valley. Illinois State Museum, Reports of Investiga-tions No. 50. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.

Henning, Dale R. 1993 The Adaptive Patterning of the Dhegiha Sioux. Plains Anthropologist

38(146):253–264.Hilger, M. Inez 1951 Chippewa Child Life. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 146. Washing-

ton, D.C.Holmes, W. H. 1880–1881 Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans. 2nd Annual Report of the Bureau

of American Ethnology, pp. 179–305. Washington, D.C.Howard, James H. 1965 The Ponca Tribe. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 195. Washington,

D.C.Jones, Andrew 2002 A Biography of Colour: Colour, Material Histories and Personhood in the

Early Bronze Age of Britain and Ireland. In Colouring the Past: The Signifi-cance of Colour in Archaeological Research, edited by Andrew Jones and Gavin MacGregor, pp. 159–174. Oxford, New York.

Kamp, Kathryn A. 2001 Where Have All the Children Gone?: The Archaeology of Childhood. Journal

of Archaeological Method and Theory 8(1):1–34.Kinietz, W. Vernon 1940 The Indians of the Western Great Lakes, 1615–1760. University of Michigan

Press, Ann Arbor.Kohl, Johann G. 1985 Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the Lake Superior Ojibway. Minnesota Historical

Society Press, St. Paul.La Flesche, Francis 1928 The Osage Tribe: Two Versions of the Child-Naming Rite. 43rd Annual Report

of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 29–164. Washington, D.C.La Fontaine, J. S. 1985 Person and Individual: Some Anthropological Reflections. In The Category of

the Person, edited by Michael Carrithers, Steven Collins, and Steven Lukes, pp. 123–140. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Lankford, George 2004 World on a String: Some Cosmological Components of the Southeastern

Ceremonial Complex. In Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art

Strezewski 187

of the Ancient Midwest and South, edited by Robert V. Sharp, pp. 207–218. Art Institute of Chicago.

2007 The “Path of Souls”: Some Death Imagery in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. In Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian Iconography, edited by F. Kent Reilly III and James F. Garber, pp. 174–212. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Latorre, Felipe A., and Dolores L. Latorre 1976 The Mexican Kickapoo Indians. University of Texas Press, Austin.Miller, Christopher L., and George R. Hamell 1986 A New Perspective on Indian-White Contact: Cultural Symbols and Colonial

Trade. Journal of American History 73(2):311–328.Miller, Jay 2000 Indien (sic) Personhood. American Indian Culture and Research Journal

24(1):121–141.Milner, George R. 1984 Social and Temporal Implications of Variation Among American Bottom

Mississippian Communities. American Antiquity 49(3):468–488.Moore, Michael C., Emanual Breitburg, Kevin E. Smith, and Mary Beth Trubitt 2006 One Hundred Years of Archaeology at Gordontown: A Fortified Mississip-

pian Town in Middle Tennessee. Southeastern Archaeology25(1):89-109.Morse, Dan F., Phyllis Morse, and Merrill Emmons 1961 The Southern Cult: The Emmons Site, Fulton County, Illinois. Central States

Archaeological Journal 8(4):124–140.Newcomb, William W. 1956 The Culture and Acculturation of the Delaware Indians. Anthropological Papers,

Museum of Anthropology No. 10. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Palkovich, Ann M. 1980 The Arroyo Hondo Skeletal and Mortuary Remains. School of American Research

Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico.Peebles, Christopher S. and Susan M. Kus 1977 Some Archaeological Correlates of Ranked Societies. American Antiquity

42(3):421–448.Perino, Gregory 1971 The Mississippian Component at the Schild Site (No. 4), Greene County,

Illinois. In Mississippian Site Archaeology in Illinois: I, Illinois Archaeological Survey Bulletin No. 8, edited by James A. Brown, pp. 1–148. University of Illinois, Urbana.

Phillips, Philip and James A. Brown 1978 Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings From the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma, 2

vols. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge.


Pietak, Lynn M. 1998 Body Symbolism and Cultural Aesthetics: The Use of Shell Beads and

Ornaments by Delaware and Munsee Groups. North American Archaeologist 19(2):135–161.

Prentice, Guy 1987 Marine Shells as Wealth Items in Mississippian Societies. Midcontinental

Journal of Archaeology 12(2):193–223.Quaife, Milo. M. 1921 Fort Wayne in 1790. Indiana Historical Society Publications 7(7):294–361.Radin, Paul 1970 The Winnebago Tribe. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Rakita, Gordon F. M., and Jane E. Buikstra 2005 Introduction. In Interacting With the Dead: Perspectives on Mortuary Archaeol-

ogy for the New Millennium, edited by Gordon F. M. Rakita, Jane E. Buikstra, Lane A. Beck, and Sloan R. Williams, pp. 1–11. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Rodning, Christopher B. 2001 Mortuary Ritual and Gender Ideology in Protohistoric Southwestern North

Carolina. In Archaeological Studies of Gender in the Southeastern United States, edited by Jane M. Eastman and Christopher B. Rodning, pp. 77–100. Uni-versity Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Saxe, Arthur A. 1970 Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,

Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Schweitzer, Marjorie M. 2001 Otoe and Missouria. In Plains, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie, pp. 447–461.

Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 13, William C. Sturtevant, gen-eral editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Sempkowski, Martha L. 1989 Fluctuations Through Time in the Use of Marine Shell at Seneca Iroquois

Sites. In Proceedings of the 1986 Shell Bead Conference: Selected Papers, edited by Charles F. Hayes III, Lynn Ceci, and Connie C. Bodner, pp. 81–96. Roches-ter Museum and Science Center, Research Records No. 20. Rochester, New York.

Skinner, Alanson 1913 Social Life and Ceremonial Bundles of the Menomini Indians. Anthropological

Papers of the American Museum of Natural History Vol. 13, part 1. American Museum of Natural History, New York.

1923 Observations on the Ethnology of the Sauk Indians. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 5(1):1–57.

Strezewski 189

Smith, Hale G. 1951 The Crable Site, Fulton County, Illinois: A Late Prehistoric Site in the Central

Illinois Valley. Anthropological Papers No. 7, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Snyder, Gary S. 1999 Wampum: A Material Symbol of Cultural Value to the Iroquois Peoples of

Northeastern North America. In Culture and Economy in Prehistory, edited by John E. Robb, pp. 362–379. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Oc-casional Paper No. 26. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale, Illinois.

Speck, Frank G. 1942 The Tutelo Spirit Adoption Ceremony: Reclothing the Living in the Name of the

Dead. Pennsylvania Historical Commission, Harrisburg. Spindler, Louise S. 1978 Menominee. In Northeast, edited by Bruce J. Trigger, pp. 708–724. Handbook


Strezewski, Michael 2003 Mississippian Period Mortuary Practices in the Central Illinois River Val-

ley: A Region-wide Survey and Analysis. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Strong, William D. 1935 An Introduction to Nebraska Archeology. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections

93(10):1–323. Thomas, Larissa A. 1996 A Study of Shell Beads and Their Social Context in the Mississippian Period:

A Case from the Carolina Piedmont and Mountains. Southeastern Archaeology 15(1):29–46.

Thwaites, Reuben G. (editor) 1896–1901 The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. 73 vols. Burrows Brothers,

Cleveland.Tooker, Elisabeth 1964 An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615–1649. Bureau of American Ethnol-

ogy, Bulletin 190. Washington, D.C.Trubitt, Mary Beth D. 2003 The Production and Exchange of Marine Shell Prestige Goods. Journal of

Archaeological Research 11(3):243–277.Ubelaker, Douglas H. 1989 Human Skeletal Remains: Excavation, Analysis, Interpretation, 2nd ed. Taraxacum

Press, Washington, D.C.


Wedel, Mildred M. 2001 Iowa. In Plains, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie, pp. 432–446. Handbook


Wedel, Waldo R. 2001 Plains Village Tradition: Central. In Plains, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie,

pp. 173–185. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 13, William C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Wray, Donald E.ca. 1935 Shryock Site—Fulton County, Oct 1934—Nov. Mound 454. Manuscript on

file, Dickson Mounds Museum, Lewistown, Illinois.ca. 1936 Site #20 Fulton County. Manuscript on file, Dickson Mounds Museum,

Lewistown, Illinois.ca. 1938 The Weaver Burial Mound in Fulton County. Bulletin of the Archaeological

Society of Illinois (no vol. #):15–16.ca. 1938 The Weaver Burial Mound in Fulton County. Manuscript on file, Dickson

Mounds Museum, Lewistown, Illinois.ca. 1940 Housten Mounds. Manuscript on file, Dickson Mounds Museum, Lewistown,

Illinois.ca. 1941 The Shryock Site—Fulton County, Illinois. Manuscript on file, Dickson

Mounds Museum, Lewistown, Illinois.Wray, Donald, and Richard S. MacNeish 1958 The Weaver Site: Twenty Centuries of Illinois Prehistory. Manuscript on

file, Dickson Mounds Museum, Lewistown, Illinois. 1961 The Hopewellian and Weaver Occupations of the Weaver Site, Fulton

County, Illinois. Scientific Papers 7(2). Illinois State Museum, Springfield.Yerkes, Richard W. 1989 Shell Bead Production and Exchange in Prehistoric Mississippian Popula-

tions. In Proceedings of the 1989 Shell Bead Conference: Selected Papers, edited by Charles F. Hayes III, Lynn Ceci, and Connie C. Bodner, pp. 113–123. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Research Records No. 20, Rochester, New York.

The Concept of Personhood in a Mississippian Society

Documents

Transcript of The Concept of Personhood in a Mississippian Society