Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:53:55.615Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Other-Than-Human Persons, Mishipishu, and Danger in the Late Woodland Inland Waterway Landscape of Northern Michigan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2020

Meghan C. L. Howey Open the ORCID record for Meghan C. L. Howey [Opens in a new window]
Meghan C. L. Howey*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Earth Systems Research Center; Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space; University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH03824, USA
*
(meghan.howey@unh.edu, corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Other-than-human persons and the role they play in transforming social, economic, and ideological material realities is an area of expanding interest in archaeology. Although the Anishinaabeg were an early and vital focus of cultural anthropological studies on nonhumans given their significant relationships with other-than-human persons, known to them as manitou, emerging archaeologies advancing this topic are not largely centered on ancestral Anishinaabeg sites and artifacts. This article analyzes a set of nonvessel ceramic artifacts from Late Woodland archaeological sites in the Inland Waterway in northern Michigan, which are interpreted to be ceramic renderings of manitou. I argue that these were manitou-in-clay, vibrant relational entities that are brought into being for and through use in ceremonial perspective practices related to Mishipishu—a complexly powerful, seductive, and dangerous nonhuman being known as the head of all water spirits. I contextualize the making and breaking of Mishipishu manitou-in-clay as acts of petition by hunter-fishers who had been seduced by this manitou in dreams, as they headed out on necessary but high-risk early-spring resource harvesting in the inland lakes of the Inland Waterway. This case advances insights into how relationships with other-than-human persons were coproductive of the world in the northern Great Lakes region during the Late Woodland period.

Las personas que no son humanas y el papel que desempeñan en la transformación de las realidades materiales sociales, económicas e ideológicas es un área de creciente interés en la arqueología. Aunque los Anishinaabeg fueron uno de los primeros y vitales focos de los estudios antropológicos culturales sobre los no humanos debido a sus relaciones significativas con personas que no son humanas conocidas por ellos como manitou, las arqueologías emergentes que promueven este tema no se centran en gran medida en los sitios y artefactos ancestrales de Anishinaabeg. Este artículo analiza un conjunto de artefactos cerámicos no embarcados de los sitios arqueológicos de Woodland tardío en el Canal interior en el norte de Michigan interpretados como representaciones cerámicas de manitou. Sostengo que se trata de entidades relacionales vibrantes de manitou-in-clay, creadas para y mediante el uso en prácticas de perspectiva ceremoniales relacionadas con Mishipishu, un ser no humano complejo, poderoso, seductor y peligroso conocido como la cabeza de todos los espíritus del agua. Contextualizo la fabricación y ruptura de Mishipishu manitou-in-clay como actos de petición de cazadores-pescadores que habían sido seducidos por este manitou en sueños, mientras se dirigían a la recolección de recursos necesarios pero de alto riesgo a principios de la primavera en los lagos interiores de El Canal Interior. Este caso ofrece información sobre cómo las relaciones con personas que no son humanas fueron coproductivas del mundo en la región norte de los Grandes Lagos durante el período de Woodland tardío.

Keywords

other-than-human personsunderwater pantherceramicsdreamsAnishinaabegmanitouritualLate WoodlandGreat Lakeshunter-gatherersLas personas que no son humanaspantera submarinacerámicasueñosAnishinaabegmanitouritualWoodland tardíoGrandes Lagoscazadores-recolectores
Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 347 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Albert, Dennis A. 1995 Regional Landscape Ecosystems of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin: A Working Map and Classification. Gen. Tech. Rep. NC-178. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station, St. Paul, Minnesota. https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/10242, accessed January 8, 2020.Google Scholar
Alberti, Benjamin, and Bray, Tamara L. 2009 Introduction to Special Section Animating Archaeology: Of Subjects, Objects, and Alternative Ontologies. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19:337–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alberti, Benjamin, Jones, Andrew, and Pollard, Joshua (editors) 2013 Archaeology after Interpretation: Returning Materials to Archaeological Theory. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Alberti, Benjamin, and Marshall, Yvonne 2009 Animating Archaeology: Local Theories and Conceptually Open-Ended Methodologies. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19:344–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alt, Susan, and Pauketat, Timothy (editors) 2019 New Materialisms Ancient Urbanisms. Routledge, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnouw, Victor 1977 Wisconsin Chippewa Myths and Tales and Their Relation to Chippewa Life. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Berens, William Chief (with A. Irving Hallowell) 2009 Memories, Myths, and Dreams of an Ojibwa Leader, edited by Brown, Jennifer and Gray, Susan E.. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal.Google Scholar
Blackbird, Andrew J. 1887 History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan. Ypsilantian Job Printing House, Ypsilanti, Michigan.Google Scholar
Brown, Linda A., and Walker, William H. 2008 Prologue: Archaeology, Animism, and Non-Human Agents. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 15:297–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cipolla, Craig 2019 Taming the Ontological Wolves: Learning from Iroquoian Effigy Objects. American Anthropologist 121:613–627. DOI:10.1111/aman.13275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cipolla, Craig, and Allard, Amelie 2019 Recognizing River Power: Watery Views of Ontario's Fur Trade. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 26:1084–1105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleland, Charles E. 1985 Naub-cow-zo-win Discs and Some Observations on the Origin and Development of Ojibwa Iconography. Arctic Anthropology 22:131–140.Google Scholar
Cleland, Charles, Clute, Richard, and Haltiner, Robert 1984 Naub-cow-zo-win Discs from Northern Michigan. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 9:235–249.Google Scholar
Clifton, James A., Cornell, George, and McClurken, James M. 1986 Peoples of the Three Fires: The Ottawa, Potawatomi, and the Ojibway of Michigan. Michigan Indian Press, Grand Rapids.Google Scholar
Creese, John 2017 Beyond Representation: Indigenous Economies of Affect in the Northeast Woodlands. In Foreign Objects: Rethinking Indigenous Consumption in American Archaeology, edited by Cipolla, Craig, pp. 59–79. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Dewdney, Selwyn 1975 The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.Google Scholar
Francis, D. R. 2001 A Record of Hypolimnetic Oxygen Conditions in a Temperate Multi-Depression Lake from Chemical Evidence and Chironomid Remains. Journal of Paleolimnology 25:351–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederick, Kathryn 2019 Storage, Decision-Making, and Risk Management in Non-Sedentary Societies. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing.Google Scholar
Gray, Susan E. 2011 Pakwaciskwew: A Reacquaintance with Wilderness Woman. In Recollecting: Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands, edited by Carter, Sarah and McCormack, Patricia, pp. 245–262. Athabasca University Press, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.Google Scholar
Hallowell, A. Irving 1960 Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View. In Readings on Indigenous Religions, edited by Harvey, Graham, pp. 18–49. Bloomsbury Publishing, New York.Google Scholar
Hambacher, Michael 1992 The Skegemog Point Site: Continuing Studies in the Cultural Dynamics of the Carolinian-Canadian Transition Zone. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing.Google Scholar
Harris, Oliver 2018 More Than Representation: Multiscalar Assemblages and the Deleuzian Challenge to Archaeology. History of the Human Sciences 33(3):83–104. DOI:10.1177/0952695117752016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison-Buck, Eleanor, and Hendon, Julia A. (editors) 2018 Relational Identities and Other-Than-Human Agency in Archaeology. University of Colorado Press, Louisville.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, William J. 1891 The Midewiwin or “Grand Medicine Society” of the Ojibwa. In Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the Years 1885–1886, pp. 143–300. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Holman, Margaret B. 1978 The Settlement System of the Mackinac Phase. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing.Google Scholar
Holman, Margaret B. 1984 The Identification of Late Woodland Maple Sugaring Sites in the Upper Great Lakes. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 9:63–89.Google Scholar
Holman, Margaret B., and Lovis, William A. 2008 The Social and Environmental Constraints on Mobility in the Late Prehistoric Upper Great Lakes Region. In The Archaeology of Mobility: Old and New World Nomadism, edited by Barnard, Hans and Wendrich, Willeke, pp. 280–306. Cotsen Advanced Seminars 4. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, James H. 1960 When They Worship the Underwater Panther: A Prairie Potawatomi Bundle Ceremony. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 16:217–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howey, Meghan C. L. 2015 Geospatial Landscape Permeability Modeling for Archaeology: A Case Study of Food Storage in Northern Michigan. Journal of Archaeological Science 64:88–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howey, Meghan C. L., and Frederick, Kathryn 2016 Immovable Food Storage Facilities, Knowledge, and Landscape in Non-Sedentary Societies: Perspectives from Northern Michigan. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 42:37–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howey, Meghan C. L., and Parker, Kathryn 2008 Camp, Cache, Stay Awhile: Preliminary Considerations of the Social and Economic Processes of Cache Pits along Douglas Lake, MI. Michigan Archaeologist 54:19–43.Google Scholar
Ingold, Tim 2007 Materials against Materiality. Archaeological Dialogues 14:1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Basil 1976 Ojibwa Heritage. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Johnston, Basil 1995 The Manitous: The Supernatural World of the Ojibway. Harper Perennial, New York.Google Scholar
Jones, Andrew Merion, and Alberti, Benjamin 2013 Archaeology after Interpretation. In Archaeology after Interpretation: Returning Materials to Archaeological Theory, edited by Alberti, Benjamin, Jones, Andrew, and Pollard, Joshua, pp. 15–42. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Kohl, Johann 1985 [1860] Kitchi-Gami: Life among the Lake Superior Ojibway. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul.Google Scholar
Landes, Ruth 1968 Ojibwa Religion and the Midewiwin. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Lenik, Edward 2010 Mythic Creatures: Serpents, Dragons, and Sea Monsters in Northeastern Rock Art. Archaeology of Eastern North America 38:17–37.Google Scholar
Lenik, Edward 2012 The Thunderbird Motif in Northeastern Indian Art. Archaeology of Eastern North America 40:163–185.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A. 1973 Late Woodland Cultural Dynamics in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A. 1976 Quarter Sections and Forests: An Example of Probability Sampling in the Northeastern Woodlands. American Antiquity 41:364–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovis, William A. 1978a A Case Study of Construction Impacts on Archaeological Sites in Michigan's Inland Waterway. Journal of Field Archaeology 5:357–360.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A. 1978b A Numerical Taxonomic Analysis of Changing Woodland Site Location Strategies on an Interior Lake Chain. Michigan Academician 11(1):39–48.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A. 2001 Clay Effigy Representations of the Bear and Mishipishu: Algonquian Iconography from the Late Woodland Johnson Site, Northern Lower Michigan. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 26:105–119.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A. 2008 Revisiting the Johnson Site (20CN46): A Winter Camp in a Cedar Swamp on Mullett Lake, Michigan. Michigan Archaeologist 54:73–91.Google Scholar
Lucas, Gavin 2012 Understanding the Archaeological Record. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Mann, Robert 2018 People, Portages, and Powerful Places: Miami Indians at the Forks of the Wabash during the War of 1812 Era. Midwest Archaeological Conference Occasional Papers 2:87–104.Google Scholar
McPherron, Alan 1967 The Juntunen Site and the Late Woodland Prehistory of the Upper Great Lakes Area. Anthropological Papers No. 30. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, Claire M. 1998 Ceramic Style, Social Differentiation, and Resource Uncertainty in the Late Prehistoric Upper Great Lakes. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Morrisseau, Norval 1965 Legends of My People: The Great Ojibway. Edited by Dewdney, Selwyn. McGraw-Hill, Toronto.Google Scholar
O'Shea, John 2003 Inland Foragers and the Adoption of Maize Agriculture in the Upper Great Lakes of North America. Before Farming: The Archaeology of Old-World Hunter-Gatherers 2(3):1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pauketat, Timothy, and Alt, Susan 2018 Water and Shells in Bodies and Pots: Mississippian Rhizome, Cahokian Poiesis. In Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology, edited by Harrison-Buck, Eleanor and Hendon, Julia A., pp. 72–99. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearsall, Douglas R., Barnes, Burton V., Zogg, Gregory R., Lapin, Marc, and Ring, Richard M. (editors) 1995 Landscape Ecosystems of the University of Michigan Biological Station. School of Natural Resources and the Environment. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redsky, James 1972 Great Leader of the Ojibwe: Mis-quona-queb. Edited by Stevens, James R.. McClelland and Steward, Toronto.Google Scholar
Smith, Theresa 1995 The Island of the Anishinaabeg: Thunderers and Water Monsters in the Traditional Ojibwe Life-World. University of Idaho Press, Moscow.Google Scholar
Treuer, Anton 2010 Ojibwe in Minnesota. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul.Google Scholar
Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo Batalha 2004 Exchanging Perspectives: The Transformation of Objects into Subjects in Amerindian Ontologies. Common Knowledge 10:463–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo Batalha 2015 The Relative Native: Essays on Indigenous Conceptual Worlds. HAU Books, Chicago.Google Scholar
Warren, William W. 1984 [1885] History of the Ojibway People. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul.Google Scholar
Watts, Christopher 2013 Relational Archaeologies: Roots and Routes. In Relational Archaeologies: Humans, Animals, Things, edited by Watts, Christopher, pp. 1–20. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Watts, Christopher (editor) 2013 Relational Archaeologies: Humans, Animals, Things. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar