War Paths, Peace Paths: An Archaeology of Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern North America (Issues in Eastern Woodlands Archaeology)

239 Pages·2009·2.87 MB·English

by  David H. Dye

War Paths, Peace Paths
Issues in Eastern Woodlands Archaeology
Editors: Thomas E. Emerson and Timothy Pauketat
SERIES DESCRIPTION: Issues in Eastern Woodlands Archaeology empha-
sizes new research results and innovative theoretical approaches to the ar-
chaeology of the pre-Columbian native and early colonial inhabitants of
North America east of the Mississippi River Valley. The editors are especially
seeking contributors who are interested in addressing/questioning such con-
cepts as historical process, agency, traditions, political economy, materiality,
ethnicity, and landscapes through the medium of Eastern Woodlands ar-
chaeology. Such contributions may take as their focus a specific theoretical
or regional case study but should cast it in broader comparative or historical
terms.
Scholars interested in contributing to this series are encouraged to contact
Thomas Emerson, ITARP-Anthropology, 23 East Stadium Drive, University
of Illinois, Champaign, IL 61820; [email protected].
BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
Chiefdoms and Other Archaeological Delusions
by Timothy R. Pauketat
In Contact: Bodies and Spaces in the Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century
Eastern Woodlands
by Diana DiPaolo Loren
War Paths, Peace Paths: An Archaeology of Cooperation and Conflict in Native
Eastern North America
by David H. Dye
War Paths, Peace Paths
An Archaeology of Cooperation and
Conflict in Native Eastern
North America
David H. Dye
A Division of
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
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Copyright © 2009 by AltaMira Press
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Dye, David H.
War paths, peace paths : an archaeology of cooperation and conflict in native eastern
North America / David H. Dye.
p. cm. — (Issues in Eastern Woodlands archaeology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7591-0745-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7591-0745-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7591-0746-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7591-0746-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
eISBN-13: 978-0-7591-1312-1
eISBN-10: 0-7591-1312-2
1. Woodland Indians—Warfare. 2. Woodland Indians—History. 3. Diplomacy—East
(U.S.)—History. 4. East (U.S.)—History. I. Title.
E78.E2D94 2009
973.04'973—dc22 2008033902
Printed in the United States of America
(cid:2)™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
To the memory of the First Nation’s honored
diplomats and courageous warriors:
Deganawida (Mohawk)
The Great Sun (Natchez)
Wa-tse-mon-in (Osage)
Powhatan (Powhatan)
Tecumseh (Shawnee)

f
Contents
List of Figures ix
Foreword xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xix
Chapter 1: Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern
North America 1
Chapter 2: Archaeology and the Study of Violence
and Cooperation 19
Sidebar: The Origin of War: Is War Making
Integral to Our Ancestry? 31
Chapter 3: Family-Level Foragers and the Resolution
of Homicides 35
Sidebar: Paleoindian Foragers and
Pleistocene Extinctions 36
Chapter 4: Complex Hunter-Gatherers and the Origin
of Feuding 51
Sidebar: The Poverty Point Site and Complex
Hunter-Gatherers 60
vii
viii f Contents
Chapter 5: The Rise of Agriculture and the Elaboration
of Feuding 69
Sidebar: Shamans: Warriors and Diplomats 86
Chapter 6: Cooperation and Conflict in Late
Woodland Societies 89
Sidebar: Hilltop Enclosures: Ritual or Defense? 91
Chapter 7: Cooperation and Conflict in the Northeast 105
Sidebar: Iroquois Ambassadors 117
Chapter 8: Cooperation and Conflict in the Upper Midwest 125
Sidebar: Matrilocal Warriors 134
Chapter 9: Cooperation and Conflict in the Lower Midwest
and Southeast 141
Sidebar: Heroic Warriors 152
Chapter 10: The Paths of War and Peace in Eastern
North America 167
References Cited 179
Index 207
About the Author 217
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List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Cultural chronology of eastern North America 5
Figure 2.1 Map of eastern North America 23
Figure 2.2 Satellite image of eastern North America 24
Figure 3.1 Paleoindian hunters and gatherers, Tennessee,
ca. 10,000 BC 39
Figure 3.2 Dalton symbolic weaponry 45
Figure 4.1 Archaic hunters and gatherers, Tennessee, ca. 5000 BC 52
Figure 4.2 Middle Archaic symbolic weaponry 55
Figure 4.3 Late Archaic symbolic weaponry 63
Figure 4.4 Poverty Point site, West Carroll Parish, Louisiana 66
Figure 5.1 Grave Creek Mound, Marshall Co., West Virginia 72
Figure 5.2 Birdstone, Floyd Co., Georgia 74
Figure 5.3 Middle Woodland village gardeners, Tennessee,
ca. AD300 77
Figure 5.4 Plan of Pinson Mounds, Madison Co., Tennessee 79
Figure 5.5 Saul’s Mound, Pinson Mounds, Madison Co., Tennessee 80
Figure 5.6 Three obsidian bifaces, AD400, Hopewell site,
Ross Co., Ohio 81
Figure 6.1 The Black Warrior at Picture Cave I, Missouri 96
Figure 6.2 Mound A, Toltec Mounds, Lonoke Co., Arkansas 100
Figure 7.1 Map of Iroquoian and Algonquian speakers 106
Figure 7.2 Community plan of Keffer Village, Ontario 109
Figure 7.3 Keffer Village, Ontario 112
ix