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A Multidimensional Investigation of Biocultural Relationships among Three Late Prehistoric Societies in Tennessee

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

C. Clifford Boyd Jr.  and
Donna C. Boyd
C. Clifford Boyd Jr.
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Radford University, Radford, VA 24142
Donna C. Boyd
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Radford University, Radford, VA 24142
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Abstract

Interrelations among three roughly contemporaneous late prehistoric Mississippian societies in Middle and East Tennessee are reexamined in terms of currently available biological, archaeological, and ethnohistoric data. Previous researchers have suggested a close relation between two of those cultures—Mouse Creek and Middle Cumberland—to the exclusion of the third, Dallas. However, multivariate analyses of craniofacial and mandibular dimensions of individuals from the three groups suggest a greater biological relation between Dallas and Mouse Creek than between Mouse Creek and Middle Cumberland. In addition, a comparison of intrasite settlement patterning, ceramic and mortuary variability, and ethnohistoric data across the three groups support the skeletal analysis. Relations between Dallas and Mouse Creek may mirror similar processes of sociopolitical reorganization occurring throughout the Southeast in the late prehistoric period.

Résumé

Résumé

Las interrelaciones que existieron entre tres sociedades Mississippian aproximadamente contemporáneas del periodo prehistórico tardío en el centro y el este de Tennessee se reexaminarán aquí a partir de datos biológicos, arqueológicos, y etnohistóricos disponibles actualmente. Investigadores previos han sugerido que existía una relación muy cercana entre dos de estas culturas—las de Mouse Creek y Middle Cumberland—sin contar la tercera cultura, llamada Dallas. Sin embargo, un análisis multivariable de las dimensiones del cráneo, la cara, y la mandíbula de los restos de esqueletos de individuos de estos tres grupos indica una relación biológica significativa entre Dallas y Mouse Creek y ninguna relación entre Mouse Creek y Middle Cumberland. Además, una comparación del patrón de asentamiento, los artefactos cerámicos, la variedad en forma de los entierros humanos, y los datos etnohistóricos de los tres grupos apoyan los resultados del análisis del esqueleto. Puede ser que las relaciones entre las culturas Dallas y Mouse Creek reflejen procesos semejantes de reorganización sociopolítica que ocurrieron a través del sudeste de los Estados Unidos durante el periodo prehistórico tardío.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 1991 , pp. 75 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1991

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