Beliefs and Rituals in Archaic Eastern North America: An Interpretive Guide

404 Pages·2015·4.75 MB·English

by  Cheryl Claassen

Beliefs and Rituals
in Archaic East ern
North America

Beliefs and Rituals
in Archaic East ern
North America
A I G
n nterpretIve uIde
CHERYL CLAASSEN
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALA BAMA PRESS
Tuscaloosa
The University of Alab ama Press
Tuscaloosa, Ala bama 35487–0380
uapress.ua.edu
Copyright © 2015 by the University of Ala bama Press
All rights reserved.
Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should be addressed to the
University of Ala bama Press.
Typeface: Bembo
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover photograph: Mixcoatl/Camaxtli, the hunt god, from the Aztec Codex Borgia
Cover design: Michele Myatt Quinn
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Claassen, Cheryl, 1953–
Beliefs and rituals in Archaic Eastern North America : an interpretive guide / Cheryl
Claassen.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8173-1854-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8173-8795-2
(ebook) 1. Indians of North America—East (U.S.) —Antiquities. 2. Indians of North
America—East (U.S.) —Religion. 3. Indians of North America—East (U.S.) —Rites
and ceremonies. 4. East (U.S.) —Antiquities. I. Title.
E78.E2C58 2015
974'.01—dc23
2014038706
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
List of Abbreviations xv
Part I. Archaic Social Life 1
Part II. Annotated Sampler of Sites 51
Part III. Annotated Beliefs and Rites 133
References Cited 329
Index 373

Illustrations
Figures
1. Locations of annotated Paleoindian and Early Archaic sites 2
2. Locations of annotated Middle Archaic and multicomponent Archaic sites 3
3. Locations of annotated Late Archaic sites 4
4. Locations of annotated Far North sites 5
5. Correspondence of annotated archaeological sites with fossil sites 17
6. Preparing the feast to follow the 2013 rain- calling pilgrimages of San
Andres de la Cal, Morelos, Mexico 33
7. Fertility rockshelter shrine at Chalma, Mexico 37
8. Structure 4 at the Bailey site with exterior pits and interior windscreen 57
9. Caddy Park, Massachusetts, floor plan of feature 63
10. Ritually broken bifaces in the Caradoc cache 64
11. Graham Cave 75
12. Stone circle inside Graham Cave 75
13. Shelter plan at the Higgs site 82
14. Aerial photo of Little Salt Springs sinkhole 93
15. Plan of baked-clay floors, Riverton site 110
16. Plan of lower zone features in Stanfield- Worley Shelter 121
17. Altar for calling rain on Mishuehue mountaintop, Guerrero 135
18. Waymarker altar on Acatlan pilgrimage, Guerrero 135
19. Mixcoatl/Camaxtli, the hunt god 143
20. Graham Cave (23Mt2) nutting stone from “general surface” 152
21. Sitting body entombed in Zaachila, Oaxaca, Mexico 163
22. Offering placed before a red- and- black- streaked cliff face, Acatlan
pilgrimage trail 181
23. Archaic mound complexes georeferenced to largest mound and baselines
to show scalar differences, as well as to largest mound and azimuth to show
integration 220
24. Archaic- aged image from Titicut site of a canoe caught in a wind that
capsized and drowned the paddler 227
25. Rain- calling shrine on the peak of Mishuehue Mountain, near San Agustin
Oapan, Guerrero, Mexico 248
26. Man carrying an offering of turkey and tamales to be placed on an altar at
the Acatlan rain- calling, Guerrero, Mexico 255
27. Sacred bundles being cleansed before they are carried to springs and caves
of San Andres de la Cal, Morelos, Mexico 256
28. Oracle head placed inside a cave in a mountain consulted by the hunter-
gatherer Chichimecas 257
29. Four priests who led the hunter- gatherer Chichimecas from Atzlan,
wearing sacred packs 259
30. Soft rock “Holy Earth” that is eaten by pilgrims to Chalma, Morelos,
Mexico 261
31. Tiger fighters praying before one shrine in their multiday circuit of shrines,
Acatlan, Guerrero, Mexico 265
32. A ritual specialist, her attendant, and pilgrims praying for rain at a spring
near San Andres de la Cal, Morelos, Mexico 281
33. Rock formation at the rain- calling shrine of Tepec, village of
Amayaltepec, Guerrero, Mexico 282
34. Cyprus tree shrine in Morelos where pilgrims seeking fertility hang
baggies with umbilical cords, baby shoes, baby socks, and pictures of
children 296
35. Pilgrim at the shrine on top of Mishuehue Mountain firing a bottle rocket
over the valley below, mimicking lightning and thunder 305
36. Trail followed by mounted pilgrims to the top of Mishuehue Mountain
and the rain- calling shrine there 315
37. Sacred ahuehuete (cypress) tree at Ocuilan, Morelos, from whose roots
spring gallons of water 317
38. The Virgin of the Nativity Church in Tixtla, Guerrero, planted between
giant ahuehuetes 318
Table
1. Chronological Periods 6
Acknowledgments
I would be ungrateful if I didn’t acknowledge the prior writings and bibliog-
raphies of colleagues and ancestors that I have read over the past twenty years.
Particularly influential have been Jill Furst (1995), Stacey Schaefer (2002),
James Brady (vari ous), Lee Irwin (1994), and Robert Hall (vari ous).
Individuals who helped me in numerous ways should be mentioned next.
Thanks to Marcial Camilo Ayala, who has accompanied me on most of the
Mexican rain- callings and made arrangements for us for several of them.
It was he who first alerted me to the existence of annual rain-c allings in
Guerrero when I visited his painting studio in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in the
summer of 2009. Then there are the two miraculous Appalachian State un-
der graduate students, Dan Polito and Josh Piercy, who knew how to do every-
thing I needed on the very day I realized I needed them and then produced
publishable line drawings and maps in good time. Chris Ellis re photo graphed
Figure 10 for me several times. Curtiss Hoffman of the Massachusetts Ar-
chaeological Society gave permission to reprint Figures 9 and 25.
Michael Smith of the Paleontological Society of Austin provided the fos-
sil data necessary to create Figure 5, which he has used for a map he pro-
duced. John Gifford provided Figure 14, which Carlos Alvarez Zarikian fa-
cilitated for me by giving me Gifford’s contact information. Ashley Dumas
at the Ala bama Archaeological Society gave permission to use Figure 17.
Marilyn Smith gave permission to use Figure 32. Brandy Tunmire of the
University of Missouri obtained Figure 20 and Debra Ray at Graham Cave
gave permission to print it. Margaret Nelson and Michelle Hegmon helped
with another, unutilized illustration. The idea for this work came from the
dictionary produced by Mary Miller and Karl Taube (1993).
I also thank the authors of unpublished papers I have cited for giving per-
mission to cite from their work. Alice Kehoe reviewed an early draft of the
manuscript and gave not only useful corrective comments but praise—thank
you. Thanks to the anonymous sec ond reviewer and the vari ous members