Look to the earth: the search for ritual in the context of mound construction

Kidder, Tristram R.; Sherwood, Sarah C.

doi:10.1007/s12520-016-0369-1

Cited by 31 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…More recently, some archaeologists have begun to recognize that places have unique life histories that are significantly different than other places or objects (Boivin 2004; Walker 1995). Recent geoarchaeological and paleoethnobotanical work has contributed to the understanding of structured deposits and their formation processes (e.g., Goldstein and Hageman 2009; Kidder and Sherwood 2016; Morehart 2011; Roos and Wells 2017; Van Keuren and Roos 2013; Walker 2002). These works look at patterning in horizontal space and stratigraphic sequencing to reconstruct behavior.…”

Section: Structured Deposits and Ethnographic Analogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered Places and Depositional Histories: Reconstructing a Menstrual Lodge in the Interior Northwest

Carney

Guedes

Lyons³

et al. 2019

Am. Antiq.

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This project considered the deposition history of a burned structure located on the Kalispel Tribe of Indians ancestral lands at the Flying Goose site in northeastern Washington. Excavation of the structure revealed stratified deposits that do not conform to established Columbia Plateau architectural types. The small size, location, and absence of artifacts lead us to hypothesize that this site was once a non-domestic structure. We tested this hypothesis with paleoethnobotanical, bulk geoarchaeological, thin section, and experimental firing data to deduce the structural remains and the post-occupation sequence. The structure burned at a relatively low temperature, was buried soon afterward with imported rubified sediment, and was exposed to seasonal river inundation. Subsequently, a second fire consumed a unique assemblage of plant remains. Drawing on recent approaches to structured deposition and historic processes, we incorporate ethnography to argue that this structure was a menstrual lodge. These structures are common in ethnographic descriptions, although no menstrual lodges have been positively identified in the archaeological record of the North American Pacific Northwest. This interpretation is important to understanding the development and time depth of gendered practices of Interior Northwest groups.

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Section: Structured Deposits and Ethnographic Analogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered Places and Depositional Histories: Reconstructing a Menstrual Lodge in the Interior Northwest

Carney

Guedes

Lyons³

et al. 2019

Am. Antiq.

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“…His conclusions center on: (1) the function of mounds as places to safely house the vitality of communities in the face of an unstable, shifting world; and (2) the dynamic nature of their construction. Miller's work adds important ethnographic support to existing trends in archaeological research (e.g., seeing mounds as representative of active processes rather than static outcomes of past action [Pauketat 2007], understanding the importance of specific properties of raw materials and their arrangement [Kidder and Sherwood 2017], and viewing mounds as microcosms of Native worldviews [Knight 1989] or sociograms representing inherent dualities [Knight 1998]). His data likewise provide important new analogies from which to understand specific practices identified in the archaeological record (e.g., topsoil being removed before mound construction [p. 5], and practices surrounding standing posts on mound summits [p. 18]).…”

Section: University Of Pennsylvaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

A Moral Technology: Electrification as Political Ritual in New Delhi by Leo Coleman Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017. 232 pp.

Solomon

2018

American Anthropologist

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“…This is not straightforward, especially for those who work in more ephermal sites associated with hunter-gatherers. Closely linked to ideas of social memory and landscape is the concept of place-making (Basso 1996) and “persistent places,” locales that were used and occupied repeatedly over long periods of time (Kidder and Sherwood 2016; Schneider 2015; Thompson 2010; Thompson and Pluckhahn 2010).…”

Section: Mounds As Places Of Persistence and Social Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Feasting, Ritual Practices, Social Memory, and Persistent Places: New Interpretations of Shell Mounds in Southern California

Gamble¹

2017

Am. Antiq.

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Shell mounds have not been investigated as prominent ritual features in southern CaliforniaR ecent investigations of shell mounds associated with hunter-gatherer-fishers are generating new interpretations and considerable debate. Questions about function and meaning of mounds, intentionality of their construction, and their symbolism are shifting discussions from viewing shell mounds in ecological terms of subsistence, resource exploitation, and seasonality to considering them as significant structures on the landscape that serve as places for daily practices and rituals that are inex-

show abstract

Look to the earth: the search for ritual in the context of mound construction

Cited by 31 publications

References 50 publications

Gendered Places and Depositional Histories: Reconstructing a Menstrual Lodge in the Interior Northwest

Gendered Places and Depositional Histories: Reconstructing a Menstrual Lodge in the Interior Northwest

A Moral Technology: Electrification as Political Ritual in New Delhi by Leo Coleman Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017. 232 pp.

Feasting, Ritual Practices, Social Memory, and Persistent Places: New Interpretations of Shell Mounds in Southern California

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