Archaeology of North America

ARCHAEOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICA - - Anthropology 262
Fall 2003		Goodnow 105 MWF 1:15-2:05
Prof. John Whittaker
Goodnow 207 Extension 3447
Office Hours: MWF 8:30-10:00.

A semester cannot do justice to all of North America, so this course will focus on several major regions and themes. Coverage will emphasize three general aspects: 1) Basic culture history ‑‑ what happened in ancient America, prehistoric ways of life; 2) Some knowledge of American archaeology today ‑‑ methods, goals, theoretical stances; 3) Particular topics of current or abiding interest throughout the American continent ‑‑ reconstruction of social systems, trade and exchange and contacts between prehistoric cultures, the development and spread of agriculture and its results, the rise and decline of complex organizations, reconstruction of past environments and the relationships between people and nature, the destruction of native American cultures after European colonization, pseudoscientific and political uses of archaeology.

Adovasio, James, and Jake Page
2002 The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology’s Greatest Mystery. New York: Random House.
King, Kathleen
1983 Cricket Sings: A Novel of Pre‑Columbian Cahokia. Ohio University Press, Athens.
Young, Biloine W., and Melvin Fowler
2000 Cahokia: The Great American Metropolis. University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago.
Lekson, Stephen H
1999 The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
Magnusson, Magnus and H. Palsson, trans.
1965 The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America. Penguin Books, Baltimore.

OTHER READINGS
Articles assigned will be on reserve in the library and in the Student Project Room, Goodnow 304, and in the Classics reading room in ARH. You are encouraged to Xerox articles from the packets to read at your convenience and to bring to class. Read ahead for intelligent discussion.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
2 Exams‑‑25% each
Final exam‑‑25%
Research Paper‑‑25% About 15 pages on any approved topic.
Participation in class discussions and activities will be considered in grading There will be one part‑day weekend field class processing wild food plants, and the opportunity to visit Cahokia Mounds and participate in an atlatl contest.

SYLLABUS AND READINGS – Anthro 262

F 8/29 Introduction. Archaeology and Material Culture: Atlatls

WEEKEND: (Optional) Atlatl practice.

M 9/1 American Archaeology
READ: Adovasio + Page pp. 1-43

W 9/3 Clovis First? Martin’s Model (Real Men and Megafauna).
READ: -- Adovasio + Page pp 44-130
-- Martin, Paul 1973 The Discovery of America. Science 179:969-974.
-- Frison, George C. 1989 Experimental Use of Clovis Weaponry and Tools on African Elephants. American Antiquity 54(4): 766-783.

F 9/5 PaleoIndian Origins (Routes, Monte Verde, Pre-Clovis?)
READ: -- Adovasio + Page pp. 131-230

M 9/8 Bones, Teeth, Languages and other arguments
READ: - Adovasio + Page pp. 230-end
-- Stanford, Dennis, and Bruce Bradley 2002 Ocean Trails and Prairie Paths? Thoughts about Clovis Origins. In The First Americans: Pleistocene Colonization of the New World. N. Jablonski, ed., pp. 255-271. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.

W 9/10 Late PaleoIndian Cultures, finish PaleoIndian discussions
READ: --Wheat , Joe Ben 1967 A Paleo‑Indian Bison Kill. In New World Archaeology: Readings from Scientific American. E.B.Zubrow et al. eds. pp.213‑221. San Francisco: WH Freeman and Co. (Scientific American January 1967).

F 9/12 Hunter-Gatherer Ways of Life – Transformation from the Pleistocene

FRIDAY 12 leave for Cahokia after classes (4:30)
SATURDAY 13 atlatl event at Cahokia
SUNDAY 14 return from Cahokia

M9/15 The Archaic in N and E US ‑‑ "primary forest efficiency"
READ: -- Winters, H. D. 1968 Value Systems and Trade Cycles of the Late Archaic in the Midwest. In New Perspectives in Archaeology S.R. and L.Binford eds, pp. 175-221. Chicago:Aldine. READ: -- Doucette, Dianna L. 2001 Decoding the Gender Bias: Inferences of Atlatls in Female Mortuary Contexts. In Gender and the Archaeology of Death, B. Arnold and N.L. Wicker eds., pp. 159-177. Altamira Press, Walnut CreekCA.

W 9/17 The Archaic in SW and W US ‑‑ Desert Culture, setting the stage. Split-twig figurines.
READ: -- Heizer, Robert F. 1970 The Anthropology of Prehistoric Great Basin Human Coprolites. In Science in Archaeology, 3rd edition. D.Brothwell and E.Higgs eds. pp. 244‑250. New York: Praeger Publishers. READ: -- Madsen, David 1989 A Grasshopper in Every Pot. Natural History 7( ):22‑24. READ: Emslie, Steven D., Robert C. Euler, and Jim I. Mead 1987 A Desert Shrine in Grand Canyon, Arizona, and the Role of Split-twig Figurines. National Geographic Research 3(4):511-516.

F 9/19 NO CLASS, FT OSAGE

M 9/22 "Digger Indians" vs Computer Jocks ‑‑ archaeology in the Great Basin.
READ: -- Steward, Julian H. 1955 The Great Basin Shoshonean Indians: An Example of a Family Level of Sociocultural Integration. Chapter 6, pp 101-121 in Theory of Culture Change. READ: -- Thomas, David H. 1973 An Empirical Test for Steward's Model of Great Basin Settlement Patterns. American Antiquity 38(2):155‑176. READ: -- Bettinger, Robert L. 1977 Aboriginal Human Ecology in Owens Valley: Prehistoric Change in the Great Basin. American Antiquity 42(1):3‑17. NOTE: Do not be intimidated by the statistics in Thomas and Bettinger. Everything is also explained in words. Read to see how the tests were set up, and the resulting pictures of Great Basin life.

W 9/24 Acorn Porridge ‑‑ gatherers in the mountains, hills, and coasts. Yosemite example.
READ: -- Gifford, E.W. 1951 Californian Balanophagy. In The California Indians. R.F.Heizer and M.A.Whipple eds.pp.237‑242. Berkeley: U. of California Press. READ: -- Heizer, R. and A. Elsasser 1980 The Natural World of the California Indians. Berkeley, Univ. of California Press. Read pp. 91-101, in Chapter 4.

F 9/26 Acorn Day - instead of class, we will process acorns outside, in two groups, morning and afternoon, and experiment with other hunter-gatherer technology

M 9/29 Discuss acorn day, Archaic in general

W 10/1 Totem Poles, Potlatches, and Dried Fish ‑‑ the Northwest Coast "baroque Archaic".
READ: -- Ames, Kenneth 1992 Household Archaeology of a Northwest Coast Plank House. Journal of Field Archaeology 19(3):275-290. READ: -- Daugherty, Richard 1988 Problems and Responsibilities in the Excavation of Wet Sites [Ozette Site], in Wet Site Archaeology, B. Purdy ed., pp. 15-29.

F 10/3 Bone Knives, Skin Boats, Snow Houses – Eskimos, others ‑‑ archaic lifeways in the cold.
READ: -- Hansen, J.P.H., J.Meldgaard, and J.Nordqvist. 1985 The Mummies of Qilakitsoq. National Geographic 167(2): 190‑207.

M 10/6 Film
W 10/8 Arctic – discuss film and readings

F 10/10 FIRST EXAM

M 10/13 Hunters and farmers of the Plains
READ: -- Bozell, John 1995 Culture, Environment, and Bison Populations on the Late Prehistoric and Early Historic Central Plains. Plains Anthropologist 40(152): 145-163. READ: -- Banks, K.M. and J.S. Snortland 1995 Every Picture Tells a Story: Historic Images, Tipi Camps, and Archaeology. Plains Anthropologist 40(152):125-144.

W 10/15 The Southwest: Beginnings, environment, pit house dwellers, Introduction of agriculture, diversification of cultures.
READ: Roney, John R. and Robert J. Hard 2002 Transitions to Agriculture: An Introduction. In Traditions, Transitions, and Technologies: Themes in Southwestern Archaeology. Sarah Schlanger, ed. Pp. 129-136. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. READ: -- Lekson, Chaco Meridian, pp 1-67.

F 10/17 The Anasazi: Cliff dwellers and marginal farmers.
READ: -- Dean, Jeffry S. 1970 Aspects of Tsegi Phase Social Organization. In Reconstructing Prehistoric Pueblo Societies. W.A.Longacre ed. pp. 140‑174. Albuquerque: Univ.of New Mexico Press. READ: Street, David J. 2001 How Fast is a Kiva? The Dendroarchaeology of Long House, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. The Kiva 67(2):137-166.

FALL BREAK 10/18-10/26

M 10/27 Analogy and inference ‑‑ interpreting social systems in the Southwest.
READ: -- Anderson, Kieth M. 1969 Ethnographic Analogy and Archaeological Interpretation. Science 163:133‑138. READ: -- Hill, James 1972 A Prehistoric Community in Eastern Arizona. In Contemporary Archaeology. M.P.Leone ed.pp:320‑332. Carbondale: Southern Illinois U. Press. READ: -- Longacre, William A. 1968 Some Aspects of Prehistoric Society in East Central Arizona. In New Perspectives in Archeology. S.R.Binford and L.R.Binford eds.pp.89‑102. Chicago: Aldine.

W 10/29 The Anasazi Zenith -- Chaco Canyon
READ: --Finish Lekson, The Chaco Meridian

F 10/31 Southwest: External relationships and questions of complexity
READ: -- McGuire, R. 1980 The Mesoamerican Connection in the Southwest. Kiva 46(1‑2):3‑36.

M 11/3 Southwest: Current hot topic: warfare.
READ: -- War and Peace in the Southwest (Articles by Lekson, LeBlanc, Turner, Walker) Discovering Archaeology 1(3):38-54 May/June 1999

W 11/5 SECOND EXAM

F 11/7 Myth of the Moundbuilders, and the great Davenport controversy
READ: -- BEGIN reading King, Cricket Sings and Young and Fowler, Cahokia

M 11/10 Rise of Woodland Cultures: Midlands and Southeast
READ: -- Smith, Bruce D. 1995 The Origins of Agriculture in the Americas. Evolutionary Anthropology 3(5):174-184.

W 11/12 Traders, Missionaries, Chiefs – The Hopewell Interaction Sphere
READ: -- Tainter, Joseph 1980 Behavior and Status in a Middle Woodland Mortuary Population from the Illinois Valley. American Antiquity 45(2):308‑312.

F 11/14 Cahokia – Excavating and Understanding
READ: -- Young and Fowler Cahokia (to at least p. 164)

M 11/17 Cities, Colonies, and Death Cults: Life in the Mississippian
READ: -- Finish Young and Fowler Cahokia

W 11/19 NO Class (GONE TO AAA)
F 11/21 NO Class (AAA)

M 11/24 Royal Suns and Stinkards: Mississippian Social Order
READ: -- Finish King, Cricket Sings for discussion READ: -- Dickson, D.Bruce 1981 The Yanomamo of the Mississippi Valley: Some Reflections on Larson (1972), Gibson (1974), and Mississippian Period Warfare in the Southeastern United States. American Antiquity 46(4):909‑916. READ: -- Milner, George R., Eve Anderson, and Virginia G. Smith 1991 Warfare in Late Prehistoric West-Central Illinois. American Antiquity 56(4): 581-603.

W 11/26 So what do we have in Iowa?
READ: -- Benn, D.W., E.A. Bettis, and R.C. Mallam1993 Cultural Transformations in the Keller and Bluff Top Mounds. Plains Anthropologist (Memoir 27) 38(145):53-73.

F 11/28 (THANKSGIVING)

M 12/1 The Last of the Mohicans ‑‑ archaeology in the Northeast.
READ: -- Tuck, James A. 1971 The Iroquois Confederacy. In New World Archaeology: Readings From Scientific American. E.Zubrow, ed. Pp. 190‑200. (Scientific American, February 1971)

W 12/3 Vikings in the New World ‑‑ the good, the dubious, and the absurd.
READ: -- Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson 1965 The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd. <read intro and at least one of sagas> READ: -- Ingstad, Anne Stine 1982 The Norse Settlement of L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. In Vikings in the West. Eleonore Guralnick editor, pp 31-37. Chicago: Archaeological Institute of America.

F 12/5 Delirious Archaeology ‑‑ Barry Fell and other crackpots.
READ: -- Fell, Barry 1976 America B.C. New York: Simon and Schuster. Pages 261-276. READ: -- Gorner, P. 1980 Plants as Evidence for Pre‑Columbian Contacts. Early Man 2(1):19‑22.

M 12/8 Historic sites archaeology in America.
READ: -- Otto, John S.1980 Race and Class on Antebellum Plantations. In Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America: Afro-American and Asian American Culture History R. Schuyler ed, pp. 3-13. Farmingdale: Baywood. READ: -- Crist, Thomas A.J. 1995 Bone Chemistry Analysis and Documentary Archaeology: Dietary Patterns of Enslaved African Americans in South Carolina. In Bodies of Evidence, A. Graner ed., pp. 197-219. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

W 12/10 Souls, Slaves, and Rebellion ‑‑ Spanish colonization in the Southwest and California. Paper Due

F 12/12 (LAST CLASS) Current Directions in American Archaeology, final thoughts and discussions.

EXAM as scheduled