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Community, Identity, and Social Memory at Moundville

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gregory D. Wilson
Gregory D. Wilson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3210 (gdwilson@anth.ucsb.edu)
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Abstract

In this paper I highlight the potential of social memory research to enhance our archaeological understanding of Mississippian social organization and identity politics. Mississippian communities commemorated and invoked the past through the creation and manipulation of landscapes, places, and things. To demonstrate the utility of this approach I examine and discuss Mississippian architectural and mortuary data from the Moundville site in west-central Alabama. On the basis of this examination I argue that social memory played an important role in the negotiation of social identities and the organization of community space at the Moundville site and the Mississippian Black Warrior Valley.

Resumen

Resumen

En este trabajo discuto la importancia del estudio de la memoria social para mejorar nuestro entendimiento arqueológico de la organización social y política identitaria de los Mississipianos. Las comunidades Mississipianas conmemoraban e invocaban el pasado a través de la creación y manipulación de los paisajes, lugares y objetos. Para demostrar la utilidad de este método, examino y discuto la información sobre la arquitectura y funerales de los Mississipianos en Moundville en el centro-occidental de Alabama. Basado en este análisis, argumento que la memoria social jugó un papel importante en la negociación de las identidades y la organización del espacio comunitario en Moundville y en el Black Warrior Valley.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 3 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2010

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