Interactions with the Incorporeal in the Mississippian and Ancestral Puebloan Worlds by M. Scott ...

375 Pages·2014·4.52 MB·English

by  M. Scott Thompson

Interactions with the Incorporeal

in the Mississippian and Ancestral Puebloan Worlds

by

M. Scott Thompson

A Dissertation in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

Approved April 2014 by the
Graduate Supervisory Committee:

Jane E. Buikstra, Chair
Keith W. Kintigh
David R. Abbott
Lynne G. Goldstein

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

May 2014
ABSTRACT

This research explores how people’s relationships with the spirits of the dead are
embedded in political histories. It addresses the ways in which certain spirits were integral
“inhabitants” of two social environments with disparate political traditions. Using the prehistoric
mortuary record, I investigate the spirits and their involvement in socio-political affairs in the
Prehispanic American Southeast and Southwest.
Foremost, I construct a framework to characterize particular social identities for the
spirits. Ancestors are select, potent beings who are capable of wielding considerable agency.
Ancestral spirits are generic beings who are infrequently active among the living and who can
exercise agency only in specific contexts. Anonymous groups of spirits are collectives who
exercise little to no agency.
I then examine the performance of mortuary ritual to recognize these social identities in
the archaeological record. Multivariate analyses evaluate how particular ritual actions
memorialized the dead. They concentrate on treatment of the body, construction of burial
features, inclusion of material accompaniments, and the spaces of ritual action. Each analysis
characterizes the social memories that ritual acts shaped for the spirits. When possible, I
supplement analysis of archaeological data with ethnohistoric and ethnographic information.
Finally, I compile the memories to describe the social identities for the spirits of the dead.
In this study, I examine the identities surrounding the spirits in both a Mississippian period
settlement on the Georgia coast and in several Protohistoric era Zuni towns in the northern
Southwest. Results indicate that ancestors were powerful members of political factions in coastal
Mississippian communities. In contrast, ancestral spirits and collectives of long-dead were
custodians of group histories in Zuni communities. I contend that these different spirits were
rooted in political traditions of competition. Mississippian ancestors were influential agents on
cultural landscapes filled with contestation over social power. Puebloan ancestral spirits were
keepers of histories on landscapes where power relations were masked, and where new kinds of
communities were coalescing.
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This study demonstrates that the spirits of the dead are important to anthropological
understandings of socio-political trajectories. The spirits are at the heart of the ways in which
history influences and determines politics.

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DEDICATION

To Sophie

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Foremost, I would like to thank my chair Jane Buikistra the members of my committee:
Keith Kintigh, David Abbott, and Lynne Goldstein. They were immensely supportive and provided
great encouragement throughout this project. They pushed me to develop the ideas and impacts
presented here beyond what I thought was possible. I would also like to recognize the
archaeologists who pointed me towards graduate school : David Browman, Patty Jo Watson,
John Kelly, Gayle Fritz, Adam King, Keith Stephenson, and Tammy Forehand. A special thanks to
Al Goodyear, Ken Sassaman, and George Lewis, who introduced me to the world of professional
archaeologist.
This comparative project, which uses large amounts of existing data, would not have
been possible without the many people who collected, analyzed, and curated the information
presented here. I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to all the persons who gathered these data.
Although it is not possible to list them here, their efforts and hard work are remembered and
appreciated. I would like to thank everyone who graciously shared this information with me: Keith
Kintigh, Todd Howell, Brenda Shears, Victor Thompson, Chris Stojanowski, Adam King, Keith
Stephenson, Rebecca Hill, Cory Breternitz, Doug Mitchell, Holly Young, and Lindsey Vogel. Chris
Stojanowski’s assistance was essential to collecting the Irene demographic information. A special
thanks to Rebecca Hill for all her amazing work with Southwestern mortuary data and her
friendship.
This project was supported financially by a grant from the Arizona State University
chapter of Sigma Xi. The funding was used to collect and compile the Irene Mounds mortuary
data from excavation records and notes curated at the National Anthropological Archives,
Smithsonian Institution.
During my time in graduate school at Arizona State, I was very fortunate to have many
wonderful colleagues and friends. Their professional support, encouragement, and friendship
made this effort possible. I owe a great deal to the Digital Archaeological staff and friends: Frank
McManamon, Adam Brin, Leigh Anne Ellison, and Jim Devos. Thanks to Chris Carr for guiding
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me to mortuary analysis and for all his support through the years. Gordon Rakita has helped me
to search for new directions and new opportunities in mortuary analysis, and to have great fun
doing so. I would also like to thank the many Arizona archaeologists who not only spurred my
professional career onward but who were also great friends along the way, particularly Doug
Craig, Jim Watson, Billy Graves, Chris Garraty, Doug Mitchell, Cory Breternitz, Kyle Woodson,
Chris Loendorf, and Teresa Rodriguez. Thanks to Matt Peeples for writing a statistical script to
analyze Zuni artifacts. A special nod goes to Josh Watts, Isaac Ullah, and Craig Fertelmes for
their great friendship and comradery through the years.
I owe the largest debt of gratitude to my family. My parents and grandparents supported
and encouraged me unconditionally, no matter what I chose to do. I will never forget my parents
agreeing to spend weeks at a field camp in Allendale, SC so that I could attend excavations as a
middle and high school student. Finally, I simply cannot thank Sophie enough. Her unwavering
support, solace, and love steered me through this process, and has brought me a great deal of
joy. For this, there is no payment, only my eternal gratefulness.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………………………………xiii
LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………….......xvi
CHAPTER
PROLOGUE ..................................................................................................................................... 1
1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 2
The Problem ....................................................................................................................... 3
Archaeological Mortuary Analysis and the Spirits of the Dead .............................. 4
A Focus on the Spirits of the Dead ........................................................................ 8
The Importance of the Spirits of the Dead ............................................................. 9
Addressing the Problem ................................................................................................... 11
The Data .............................................................................................................. 12
Examining Social Identities for the Spirits of the Dead ....................................... 14
Performance, Mortuary Ritual, and Social Memory.......................................................... 15
Transforming the Deceased ................................................................................ 16
Memorializing the Dead ....................................................................................... 17
Continued Remembrance of and Interaction with Spirits of the Dead ................ 18
Social Memories and Social Identities for the Spirits of the Dead....................... 19
Spirits of the Dead in Prehispanic Mississippian and Ancestral Puebloan Communities 20

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Chapter page
2 THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD ................................................ 22
Are All Spirits of the Dead “Ancestors” and All Interactions Ancestor Worship? .............. 22
The Term “Ancestor” ............................................................................................ 23
Early Descriptions of “Ancestors” and Ancestor Worship .................................... 24
Towards Identities for the Spirits of the Dead ................................................................... 25
Functionalist Approaches to the Spirits of the Dead ........................................... 26
Beyond Functionalist Approaches, Towards Political-Economics and Authority . 28
Implications for Examining the Spirits of the Dead in the Archaeological Record30
Potent Spirits of the Dead and Power .............................................................................. 31
The Ancestors Bestow Power.............................................................................. 32
The Implications of Power ................................................................................... 34
Why Ancestors? Tales of Social Competition and Power Dynamics ................................ 35
Ancestors, History, and Traditions of Social Competition .................................... 37
3 THE SOCIAL MEMORIES AND IDENTITIES OF THE DEAD ............................................. 40
Social Identities for the Spirits of the Dead: Ancestors, Ancestral Spirits, and
Collectivities ...................................................................................................................... 40
Ancestors ............................................................................................................. 42
Ancestral Spirits ................................................................................................... 47
Anonymous Groups of the Dead ......................................................................... 51
Recognizing the Social Identities of the Spirits of the Dead ............................................. 54

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Chapter page

4 IDENTIFYING ANCESTORS, ANCESTRAL SPIRITS, AND ANONYMOUS GROUPS OF THE
DEAD IN THE MORTUARY RECORD ........................................................................................... 56
Examining the Performance of Mortuary Ritual to Understand the Spirits of the Dead ... 56
Body Treatment ................................................................................................... 58
Mortuary Facilities ............................................................................................... 60
Inclusion of or Decommissioning Material Objects ............................................. 63
Spaces and Places for the Deceased and the Spirits of the Dead ..................... 65
The Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 67
Analysis Procedures and Statistical Tools ........................................................... 69
Multiple Correspondence Analysis: An Example ................................................. 71
On Identifying the Social Identities for Spirits of the Dead .................................. 78
The Analysis of Mortuary Ritual at Irene and at Hawikku and Kechiba:wa ...................... 79
The Mortuary Data and Data Collection Methods ............................................... 80
The Analysis of Mortuary Ritual at Irene and at Hawikku and Kechiba:wa ......... 83
5 MISSISSIPPIAN LANDSCAPES OF MEMORIALIZED DEAD ON THE GEORGIA COAST:
IRENE MOUNDS SITE ................................................................................................................... 85
Middle and Late Mississippian Settlement on the Georgia\South Carolina Coastline ..... 87
History of Mississippian period Polities along the Savannah River..................... 88
Coastal Mississippian Polities and the Irene Mound Center ............................... 90
The Occupational History and Context of Burial at the Irene Mounds Site ...................... 92
Savannah Phase (AD 1150 – 1300) Architecture and Burial .............................. 94
Irene phase (AD 1300 – 1450) Architecture and Burial ....................................... 97
Savannah and Irene Phase Burials in Other Spaces ........................................ 102
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Chapter page

The Irene Mortuary Record ............................................................................................ 103
Excavations at Irene .......................................................................................... 103
Irene Mortuary Data ........................................................................................... 104
The Performance of Mortuary Ritual at the Irene Mounds Site, from the Savannah Phase
to the Irene Phase ....................................................................................................................... 106
Body Treatment at the Irene Mounds Site ...................................................................... 107
Body Treatment of Different Sex and Age Groups ............................................. 115
Summary of Body Treatments through the Savannah and Irene Phases of
Occupation ........................................................................................................ 120
Burial Facilities at the Irene Mounds Site ....................................................................... 125
Material Accompaniments in Irene Mortuary Contexts ................................................... 132
Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 136
Dedication of Spaces to Memorialize the Spirits of the Dead ........................... 137
Extended Body Processing and Mortuary Structures ....................................... 138
Curation and Display of Heavily Processed Remains in Lived Spaces ............ 140
Final Interment and Burial Mounds ................................................................... 141
Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 143
The Ancestors Place in Irene’s Political History ................................................ 144
A Council of Influential Spirits ............................................................................ 148
6 PREHISPANIC ANCESTRAL SPIRITS OF HAWIKKU AND KECHIBA:WA ...................... 151
Late Prehistoric and Historic Population History of the Zuni Area.................................. 152
The Cibola Area and the Historical Development of Zuni ................................. 154
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