This dissertation is accessible only to the Illinois State University community.

  • Off-Campus ISU Users: To download this item, click the "Off-Campus Download" button below. You will be prompted to log in with your ISU ULID and password.
  • Non-ISU Users: Contact your library to request this item through interlibrary loan.

Date of Award

12-6-2015

Document Type

Thesis-ISU Access Only

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of Sociology and Anthropology: Archaeology

First Advisor

Kathryn Sampeck

Abstract

This thesis examines the ceramics from 40GN9, a Cherokee site in East Tennessee occupied from the 1400s to 1600s, to investigate the issue of coalescence during the Late Mississippian (A.D. 1350-1600) and protohistoric (A.D. 1500-1700) periods, a time characterized by disease, widespread demographic and environmental shifts, and changes in slaving, warfare, and politics. It quantifies the attributes of wares, forms, and decorations among the site's ceramics and evaluates the degree of variation within the site.

Examining the spatial distribution of different potting traditions within the site demonstrates the Cherokee women who made the pottery there came from different cultural backgrounds and practiced different potting traditions. Comparing the 40GN9 data to other protohistoric-period sites in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina then illuminates possible connections between the ceramic traditions practiced at the site and others visible in the region, thus indicating the origins of the 40GN9 community members. These analyses also illustrate the creation of a unique potting tradition at 40GN9 characterized by ceramics with smudged or undecorated exteriors, signaling the making of a shared cultural identity.

Such research contributes to the growing body of research concerning the dynamic nature of Native American life before, during, and after contact with Europeans and counteracts a tendency among scholars and the wider public toward viewing native societies as static and unchanging. Moreover, it demonstrates how Cherokee women were actively involved in the dynamic process of community coalescence and identity formation in the late Mississippian and protohistoric time periods.

Comments

Imported from ProQuest Frederick_ilstu_0092N_10661.pdf

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2015.Frederick.M

Page Count

316

Off-Campus Download

Share

COinS