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Residential Burial, Gender Roles, and Political Development in Late Prehistoric and Early Cherokee Cultures of the Southern Appalachians

Abstract

Native people in the southern Appalachians began placing graves in and around residences in the 13 th century C.E. Burials previously were placed in specialized burial mounds that likely belonged to individual kin groups. For several centuries, the practice of residential burial was contemporaneous with burial in or near public buildings that sometimes were built on platform mounds. During this time, residential versus 'public' burial became related to spatial symbolism of gender and leadership roles. These changes suggest a developmental trajectory that distinguishes southern Appalachian societies from their contemporaries elsewhere in the southeastern U.S. [Mississippian, Cherokee, gender, North Carolina, Tennessee]

Mortuary practices, gender ideology, and the Cherokee town at the Coweeta Creek site

“…Women must have participated in public events in the townhouse, but women were rarely buried in and around the townhouse. Instead, burials of women with significant status in the community-as evident in women's burials with turtle shell rattles, shell beads, and a ground stone celt, and as evident in the centrality of women's burials in some houses-were placed in and around houses, probably those houses associated with the households, clans, and lineages in which those women were prominent and powerful (see Sullivan and Rodning, 2011). Meanwhile, the placement of many burials in and around structures connected the dead with public and domestic architecture associated with the community as a whole and with specific households within the town (see Hally, 1988Hally, , 1994Hally, , 2008Hally and Kelly, 1998;Schroedl, 1998;Sullivan, 1987Sullivan, , 1995Sullivan and Rodning, 2001).…”

Activity Patterns and Division of Labor at a Southeastern Tennessee Late Mississippian Site: Toqua

“…Men's activity patterns probably focused on the winter and hunting season; however, both participated in some labor during opposing times of year. Their seasonal labor patterns and new mortuary patterning analysis (Franklin et al 2010, Sullivan and Harle 2010, Sullivan and Rodning 2010 indicates the possibility that power relationships within and outside of this site are more horizontally than vertically complex.…”

“…The EC data will be used to identify repetitive joint and activity patterns to explore the recent suggestion that Toqua, and Dallas Phase site in general, have a heterarchical power structures (Franklin et al 2010, Sullivan and Harle 2010, Sullivan and Rodning 2010, Sullivan 2006. Sullivan and Harle (2010) argue, based on ethnohistoric evidence from Cherokee groups and mortuary patterning, that the types of social distinctions and "classes" reflected in mortuary pattern were a difference of degree and not of kind.…”

“…Additionally, it may also be of even less use at smaller sites (Boudreaux 2007, Mainfort and Fisher-Carroll 2010, Franklin et al 2010. New ideas about Mississippian social and cultural organization in the Southeast are numerous and attempt to incorporate a more nuanced and complex view of power, culture, and structure (Cobb 2003, King 2004, Pauketat 2007, Sullivan 20012006, Sullivan andRodning 2010). Labor and activity patterns are intertwined with the power and structure since what you do within a society often defines what you mean to it and how you are perceived.…”

“…In conclusion, this thesis explored a comparative analysis of mechanical stress indicators (EC) of the shoulder by sex and social role/status (as defined by mortuary treatment) within one large Dallas Phase site in SE Tennessee: Toqua (40MR6). It also assessed the results relative to the recent suggestion that the Dallas Phase had a heterarchical power structure (Franklin et al 2010, Sullivan and Harle 2010, Sullivan and Rodning 2010, Sullivan 2006. EC data explored division of labor within the site, which corroborated ethnohistoric sources regarding typical male and female seasonal roles.…”