This study examines changes in long bone diaphyseal strength in west-central Illinois from the Middle Woodland through the Mississippian periods. Significant differences occur between the Middle Woodland and the Late Woodland periods, at the time when use of native seed crops intensifies. In females, both humeral and femoral strength increases, which may be related to their role in growing and processing these crops. In males, right arm strength declines, which may be tied in part to the replacement of the atlatl by the bow. Fewer significant changes occur between the earlier and later Late Woodland periods, at the time when maize is introduced as a dietary staple, possibly because maize is at first grown as only one of a series of other starchy seeds. Finally, in the Mississippian period, when maize use intensifies, female left arm strength declines. This may be because maize is easier to process than native seeds, or it may reflect innovations in processing technology in the Mississippian period. External dimensions and shape indices, in part, reflect the trends seen in biomechanical strength. Comparisons are made to similar studies in other regions.
Current ecological archaeology, as often practiced, is too closed a system. The realization that introduced external factors may play a role in cultural change as potently as localized mechanisms demands increased attention to analytical boundaries and matters of scale. This article questions the utility and effectiveness of localized adaptive explanations for large-scale historical processes and, as an illustration, considers the prehistoric distribution of the bow in North America from a continental perspective. Criteria used to determine the presence of the bow in the archaeological record are briefly reviewed and a north to south chronological distribution for the initial adoption of the bow is presented.
In the American Southeast, the simple-complex chiefdom cycle is the predominant model of sociopolítical development applied to the Precolumbian ranked societies known as Mississippian. In this paper, mound-center settlement patterns in the South Appalachian area are reviewed. Most of these distributions fail to conform to the hierarchy of centers predicted by the simple-complex chiefdom model. Contrary to the model, an absence of primary-secondary center hierarchies implies that extension of regional administrative control was not the primary determinant of mound-center distributions. A review of ethnohistorical sources suggests that another sociopolitical mechanism, the fission-fusion process, created the majority of mound-center settlement patterns through the aggregation or dispersal of basic political units. The fission-fusion process was the product of efforts by factional leaders to resolve the conflicting values of autonomy and security. Unlike the simple-complex chiefdom dichotomy, the fission-fusion model encompasses a greater diversity of Mississippian political forms and provides an alternative explanation for changes in mound center size, complexity, and location.
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