Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:21:49.186Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wealth, Space, and Status in a Historic Indian Cemetery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert C. Mainfort Jr.
Robert C. Mainfort Jr.*
Affiliation:
Tennessee Department of Conservation, Route 1, Box 316, Pinson, TN 38366
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Data from a mid-eighteenth century Native American cemetery (the Fletcher Site) are used in conjunction with ethnohistoric documents to draw sociological conclusions about the society represented at the site. Methodological tools employed toward this end include the calculation of the actual wealth represented in the graves, as well as a spatial analysis of the cemetery. It is demonstrated that the cemetery was the product of an incipiently ranked society.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , July 1985 , pp. 555 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Alvord, Clarence W., and Carter, Clarence E. (editors) 1915 Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, vol. 10. Springfield.Google Scholar
Baerreis, David A. 1973 Chieftainship among the Potawatomi : An Exploration of Ethnohistoric Methodology. Wisconsin Archaeologist 54(3) : 114–134.Google Scholar
Bellin, Jean N. 1744 Lacs du Canada. Map. Paris. Photostatic copy in Detroit Public Library.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis R. 1971 Mortuary Studies : Their Study and Potential. In Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 25, edited by Brown, J. A., pp. 6–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brain, Jeffrey P. 1979 Tunica Treasure. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Braun, David P. 1979 Illinois Hopewell Burial Practices and Social Organization : A Reexamination of the Klunk-Gibson Mound Group. In Hopewell Archaeology : The Chillico the Conference, edited by Brose, D. and Greber, N., pp. 66–79. Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio.Google Scholar
Brown, James A. 1981 The Search for Rank in Prehistoric Burials. In The Archaeology of Death, edited by Chapman, R., Kinnes, I, and Randsborg, K., pp. 25–37. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Brown, Margaret 1979 Cultural Transformations among the Illinois. Publications of the Museum, Michigan State University, Anthropological Series 1(3) : 217–267. East Lansing.Google Scholar
Buikstra, Jane E. 1976 Hopewell in the Lower Illinois Valley. Northwestern Archaeological Program, Scientific Papers, No. 2. Evanston.Google Scholar
Cleland, Charles E. (editor) 1971 The Lasanen Site : An Historic Burial Locality in Mackinac County, Michigan. Publications of the Museum, Michigan State University, Anthropological Series 1(1). East Lansing.Google Scholar
Clifton, James A. 1977 The Prairie People. The Regents Press of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Densmore, Frances 1929 Chippewa Customs. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 86. United States Government Printing Office, Washington.Google Scholar
Drucker, Phillip 1955 Indians of the Northwest Coast. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Lynne G. 1976 Spatial Structure and Social Organization : Regional Manifestations of Mississippian society. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Lynne G. 1980 Mississippian Mortuary Practices : A Case Study of Two Cemeteries in the Lower Illinois Valley. Northwestern University Archaeological Program, Scientific Papers, No. 4. Evanston.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Lynne G. 1981 One-dimensional Archaeology and Multi-dimensional People : Spatial Organization and Mortuary Analysis. In The Archaeology of Death, edited by Chapman, R., Kinnes, I, and Randsborg, K., pp. 53–69. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hickerson, Harold 1970 The Chippewa and Their Neighbors : A Study in Ethnohistory. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Walter J. 1896 The Menomini Indians. In Bureau of American Ethnology, 14th Annual Report, pt. 1, pp. 1–328. Washington.Google Scholar
Howells, William W. 1960 Estimating Population Numbers through Archaeological and Skeletal Remains. In The Application of Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 28, edited by Heizer, R. F. and Cook, S. F., pp. 158–185.Google Scholar
Hutchins, Thomas 1762 A Tour from Fort Cumberland North Westward around Part of Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan. Map. Photostatic copy in the Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Karpinski, L. C. 1977 Maps of Famous Cartographers Depicting North America. Meridian, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Kinietz, Vernon W. 1947 Chippewa Village : The Story of Katikitegon. Cranbrook Institute of Science Bulletin, No. 25. Bloomfield Hills.Google Scholar
Kinietz, Vernon W. 1965 Indians of the Western Great Lakes. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Mainfort, Robert C Jr., 1979 Indian Social Dynamics in the Period of European Contact : Fletcher Site Cemetery, Bay County, Michigan. Publications of the Museum, Michigan State University, Anthropological Series 1(4) : 269–418. East Lansing.Google Scholar
Maxwell, Moreau S. 1970 The Fletcher Mortuary Complex : A Search for Ideational Factors. Paper presented to the Midwest Archaeological Conference.Google Scholar
O' Callaghan, E. B. (editor) 1855 Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York. Weed, Parson, Albany.Google Scholar
O' Shea, John 1981 Social Configurations and the Archaeological Study of Mortuary Practices : A Case Study. In The Archaeology of Death, edited by Chapman, R., Kinnes, I, and Randsborg, K., pp. 39–52. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Orton, C. R., and Hodson, F. R. 1982 Rank and Class : Interpreting the Evidence from Prehistoric Cemeteries. In Mortality and Immortality : The Anthropology and Archaeology of Death, edited by Humphreys, S. C. and King, Helen, pp. 103–115. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Overton, R. 1756 Carte de Colonie Anglaises dans l'Amerique septentrionale terminee par la Re Ohio. Map. Paris. Photostatic copy in the Burton Historical Library, Detroit, Michigan.Google Scholar
Peckham, Howard 1970 Pontiac and the Indian Uprising. Russell and Russell, New York.Google Scholar
Peebles, Christopher S., and Kus, Susan M. 1977 Some Archaeological Correlates of Ranked Societies. American Antiquity 42(3) : 421–448.Google Scholar
Proulx, L. Amable (editor) 1928 Rapport de Varchiviste de la Province de Quebec pour 1927-1928. Google Scholar
Quimby, George I. 1966 Indian Culture and European Trade Goods. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Robertson, James A. 1982 Social Status and the Fur Trade. Unpublished ms., The Museum, Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Sauer, Norman J. 1974 An Analysis of the Human Skeletal Material from the Fletcher Site (20BY28). Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Saxe, Arthur A. 1970 Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices. Unpublished Ph. D dissertation, University of Michigan. University Microfilms No. 71–04720.Google Scholar
Service, Elman R. 1975 Origins of the State and Civilization. W. W. Norton, New York.Google Scholar
Shennan, Susan 1975 The Social Organization at Branc. Antiquity 49 : 279–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shennan, Susan 1982 From Minimal to Moderate Ranking. In Ranking, Resource, and Exchange, edited by Renfrew, C. and Shennan, G., pp. 27–32. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
James, Sullivan (editor) 1921 The Papers of Sir William Johnson, vol. 3. The Division of Archives and History, The University of the State of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
James, Sullivan (editor) 1925 The Papers of Sir William Johnson, vol. 4. The Division of Archives and History, The University of the State of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Tainter, Joseph A. 1975 The Archaeological Study of Social Change : Woodland Systems in West-central Illinois. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Tainter, Joseph A. 1978 Mortuary Practices and the Study of Prehistoric Social Systems. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 1, edited by B. Schiffer, Michael, pp. 105–141. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Temple, Wayne C. (compiler) 1975 Indian Villages of the Illinois Country. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers, vol. 2, part 1, atlas supplement. Springfield.Google Scholar
Thwaites, Rueben Gold (editor) 1888 Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 12. Madison.Google Scholar
Thwaites, Rueben Gold (editor) 1908 Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 18. Madison.Google Scholar
Turner, Jesse 1892 Reminiscences of Kalamazoo. In Collections of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, vol. 18. Lansing.Google Scholar
Van Gennep, A. 1960 The Rites of Passage. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Warren, William W. 1957 History of the Ojibwa Nation. Ross and Haines, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Winters, Howard 1968 Value Systems and Trade Cycles of the Late Archaic in the Midwest. In New Perspectives in Archaeology, edited by R. Binford, Sally and Binford, Lewis R., pp. 175–221. Chicago, Aldine.Google Scholar