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Stone Tools, Politics, and the Eighteenth-Century Chickasaw in Northeast Mississippi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jay K. Johnson
Jay K. Johnson*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677
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Abstract

The technological analysis of a collection of cores, flakes, unifaces, and bifaces from a Chickasaw site in northeast Mississippi makes it clear that the lithic industry was substantially reorganized to meet the functional demands of the early eighteenth-century colonial economy. The focus of this industry was a distinctive, well-made end scraper. Similar tools occur throughout the Midwest during late prehistoric times and extend into the middle Mississippi River valley during the protohistoric. Although the Midwest scrapers are likely a response to the spread of bison into that region, a study of the distribution of the Chickasaw tool kit in time and space suggests that it was used to process deer skins, the primary focus of the trade with the French and English in the Southeast. However, stone scrapers are not found on all early eighteenth-century Chickasaw sites. The historical documents suggest that some villages were more successful in their trade relations with the Europeans and were therefore able to replace stone tools with metal at an earlier date. An examination of the occurrence of stone tools throughout the Southeast during the early historic period indicates that relative distance to ports of trade was the primary determinant of the rate at which stone-tool technology was abandoned.

El análisis tecnológico de una colección de núcleos, lascas, unifaces, y bifaces de un sitio Chickasaw al noreste de Misisipí demuestra que la industria lítica fue reorganizada substancialmente para satisfacer las demandas funcionales de la economía colonial en el siglo dieciocho [XVIII]. El foco de esta industria fue un raspador distintivo y bien tallado. Herramientas similares ocurrieron en el Medio Oeste al final del periodo prehistórico y se extendieron hacia el valle medio del Río Misisipí durante el periodo protohistórico. Aunque los raspadores del Medio Oeste probablemente respondieron al avance del bisonte en esa región, un estudio del la distributión de herramientas Chickasaw en tiempo y espacio sugiere que éstas fueron usadas en el procesamiento de cuero de venado, el foco principal de intercambio con poblaciones inglesas y francesas en el Sureste. Sin embargo, los raspadores de piedra no se encuentran en sitios Chickasaw que datan del siglo dieciocho. Los documentos históricos sugieren que algunos asentamientos lograron mejores relaciones de intercambio con europeos y por lo tanto fueron capaces de reemplazar herramientas de piedra con metal más tempranamente. Una examinatión de la ocurrencia de herramientas Kticas a través del Sureste durante el periodo histórico temprano indica que la distancia relativa de los puertos de intercambio fue el determinante principal del paso en que la tecnología lítica fue abandonada.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 215 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1997

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References

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