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The Civil Cooking Pot: Hominy and the Mississippian Standard Jar in the Black Warrior Valley, Alabama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Rachel V. Briggs
Rachel V. Briggs*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 19 TenHoor Hall, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0210 (rvbriggs@crimson.ua.edu)
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Abstract

Although the Mississippian standard jar, a specific vessel form found in many parts of the Mississippian cultural world, has long been recognized as a utilitarian cooking pot, the important connection between this ceramic form and maize has largely been overlooked. By focusing on the Mississippian site of Moundville located in the Black Warrior valley of west-central Alabama, I propose that the Mississippian standard jar was not simply a general cooking pot, but instead a specialized culinary tool used to nixtamalize maize. As such, both the vessel and the plant were part of a cohesive ancestral hominy foodway. This relationship is demonstrated in two ways: first, by articulating both the hominy foodway and the antecedent nut foodway practiced between A.D. 1020–1260; and, second, by exploring changes in the morphology and use-alteration patterns of the Moundville Mississippian standard jars recovered from contexts dating to the Moundville I-III phases(A.D. 1120–1520). The relationship between vessel and food demonstrated here suggests a practice- and taste-based model for the synergistic relationship long recognized between maize and the emergence of the Mississippian civic-ceremonial center of Moundville.

Aunque la vasija estándar misisipiana, una forma específica de recipiente ubicua en el mundo cultural misisipiano, ha sido reconocida por mucho tiempo como una olla utilitaria, la importante conexión entre esta forma cerámica y el maíz ha sido ignorada en gran parte. Desde la perspectiva del sitio misisipiano de Moundville; en el valle de Black Warrior en el centro-oeste de Alabama, aquí propongo que la vasija estándar misisipiana no era simplemente una olla de cocina de uso genérico, sino una herramienta culinaria especializada utilizada en la nixtamalización del maíz. En conjunto, tanto el recipiente como la planta formaron parte de un hábito culinario del mote, cohesivo y ancestral. Esta relación se demuestra de dos maneras: primero, en la articulación de tanto el hábito culinario del mote, y el precedente hábito culinario de frutos secos practicado entre D.c. 1020–1260; y segundo, a través de la exploración de los cambios en la morfología y los patrones de alteración por uso en las vasijas estándar misisipianas de Moundville recuperadas en contextos de las fases Moundville I-Ill (d.C. 1120–1520). La relación entre recipiente y alimento demostrada aquí sugiere un modelo basado en prácticas y gustos para la largamente reconocida relación entre maíz y el surgimiento del centro cívico-ceremonial misisipiano en Moundville.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 316 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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