An Archaeology of the Cosmos: Rethinking Agency and Religion in Ancient America

244 Pages·2012·4.69 MB·English

by  Timothy R. Pauketat

AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE COSMOS
AnArchaeology oftheCosmosseeks answerstotwofundamental questionsofhumanity
and human history. The first question concerns that which some use as a defining
element of humanity: religious beliefs. Why do so many people believe in supreme
beings and holy spirits? The second question concerns changes in those beliefs. What
causes beliefs to change?
Using ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence gathered from ancient America,
especially the Great Plains and the pre-Columbian American Indian city of Cahokia,
TimothyPauketatexploresthelogicalimplicationsofthesetwofundamentalquestions.
He finds that religious beliefs are not more resilient than other aspects of culture and
society, and people are not the only causes of historical change.
An Archaeology of the Cosmos examines the intimate association of agency and
religion by studying how relationships between people, places, and things were
bundled together and positioned in ways that constituted the fields of human
experience. This rethinking of agency and religion provides readers with challenging
and thought-provoking conclusions that will lead them to reassess the way they
understand the past.
Timothy R. Pauketat is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-ChampaignandaSurveyAffiliateoftheIllinois StateArchaeologicalSurvey.
AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF
THE COSMOS
Rethinking Agency and
Religion in Ancient America
Timothy R. Pauketat
Firstpublished2013
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
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©2013TimothyR.Pauketat
TherightofTimothyR.Pauketattobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhas
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Pauketat,TimothyR.
Anarchaeologyofthecosmos:rethinkingagencyandreligionin
ancientAmerica/TimothyR.Pauketat.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Indiancosmology–NorthAmerica.2.IndiansofNorthAmerica–Religion.
3.Religionandculture–UnitedStates.4.Socialarchaeology–UnitedStates.
5.UnitedStates–Antiquities.6.UnitedStates–Religiouslifeandcustoms.I.Title.
E98.C79P382012
970.004’97–dc23
2012014795
ISBN978-0-415-52128-4(hbk)
ISBN978-0-415-52129-1(pbk)
ISBN978-0-203-08518-9(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
In memory of Michael Litchford,
for whom the encounter with the temple
was an intimate, defining moment.
CONTENTS
List of Figures viii
List of Tables xiii
Acknowledgments xiv
1 Beliefs 1
2 Religion from the Top Down 8
3 Agency, Bundling, and Positioning 27
4 Bundles 43
5 Intimate Parallelisms 59
6 Religion from the Ground Up 88
7 Bringing Religion to a Standstill 133
8 Cosmic Deposits 164
9 Positioning Theory 181
Appendix 191
Notes 192
References 195
Index 226
LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 Map of ancient North America, showing archaeological
complexes and historic-era tribes mentioned in the text 3
2.1 The Cahokia–East St. Louis–St. Louis districts within the
central complex 18
2.2 Plan view of the city of Cahokia 1050–1150 CE 19
2.3 Early Mississippian semi-subterranean pole-and-thatch buildings:
top, oblique cut-away view of typical wall-trench building shown
without thatch (adapted from Alt and Pauketat 2011); bottom,
reconstruction of Pfeffer site temple, University of Illinois, 2001 20
2.4 Timeline of select North American regions 21
2.5 Indian burial scene, near Lake Kee-waw-nay, Indiana. Long
single file of women in Indian dress following bier carried by four
women; led by a single woman. Two men, one mounted on horse,
watch from side of path, ca. 1837–38 (Winter 1948: courtesy of
the Tippecanoe County Historical Association, Lafayette, Indiana) 26
3.1 Semiotic triad as entangled practically and metaphorically in a
web of relations (Morris 1971; Nöth 1990: 90; Ogden and
Richards 1946; Peirce 1982–89) 37
3.2 Meshwork of knotted or intersecting lines (following Ingold
2007b: Figure 3.1, top) 38
3.3 Five bundles of citations shown as asterisks or intersections
of lines over three phases of time, with dashed lines indicating
a bundle transfer prior to the subsequent phase 40
3.4 Space-time field of bundles (dots are bundles, solid lines are current
associations, and dashed lines are past associations) 41
4.1 Blackfoot medicine-pipe bundle (from Wissler 1912:
Figure 39) 44
ListofFigures ix
4.2 Dance to the medicine-bag of the brave (Catlin 1973: Plate 297,
courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington, DC) 46
5.1 Paths of the sun @ latitude N38 degrees over the course of a year 62
5.2 Cahokian embodiment of the cosmos by a Ramey Incised pot
(adapted from Pauketat 2012; Pauketat and Emerson 1991:
Figure 1.3) 63
5.3 A Pawnee earthlodge (adapted from Weltfish 1977: Figure 8–1) 64
5.4 Ponka Fort, Todd County, Nebraska (from Dorsey 1886: 221) 65
5.5 Chaco Canyon’s Pueblo Bonito, view from the northeast,
with arrow indicating north-south masonry wall 66
5.6 Abó, showing continuous cruciform nave, left, and circular
kiva, shaded (from Ivey 1988: Figure 3) 68
5.7 The nave of the Pecos Pueblo church, highlighting its alignment
with the distant escarpment and the setting sun on the equinoxes 68
5.8 Pictograph in Cliff Palace observatory showing horizon
observations (adapted from Malville 2008: Figure 8.10) 71
5.9 Ho-Chunk replica of a traditional calendar stick (courtesy
Chloris Lowe, Jr.) 72
5.10 Horizon chart showing solstitial, equinoctial, and lunar
maximum and minimum rising setting positions at Cahokia’s
Rattlesnake Mound (latitude N38.64 degrees) 74
5.11 Newark and High Bank geometric earthworks, showing
lunar alignments (adapted from Hively and Horn 2006:
Figure 4, 2010: Figure 5.7) 75
5.12 The Chacoan Great House of Kin Kletso, Chaco Canyon,
New Mexico 77
5.13 Chaco Canyon’s central organizational axes (adapted from Sofaer
2008a: Figure 9.9) 79
5.14 Chimney Rock spires between which a lunar maximum
moon would rise 81
5.15 Dakota cosmogram and its associations (adapted from Dorsey
1894: Figure 194) 84
5.16 Close-up of anthropomorphized post in the Carolinas
(portion of an engraving following Theodor de Bry, 1590,
published in L’Univers, Firmin Dido frères, Paris, 1843:
from the collection of the author) 86
6.1 Schematic plan view of Cahokia’s Woodhenge (from
Wittry 1996: Figure 3.1, courtesy of the Wisconsin
Archeological Society) 91
6.2 Sunrise angles and burial orientations of 662 burials from the
Cahokia-related Spoon River area of west-central Illinois (from Harn
1994: Figure 10, courtesy of the Illinois State Museum, Springfield,
Illinois) 92
x ListofFigures
6.3 Public buildings atop the principal pyramid at Hiwassee Island,
Tennessee (from Lewis and Kneberg 1946: Plate 18, courtesy
of the University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee) 94
6.4 Terminal Late Woodland and Early Mississippian building alignments
at Cahokia’s Tracts 15A and 15B (building alignments are adjusted to
true north with the azimuth distribution compressed by rotating
orthogonal buildings 90 degrees) 97
6.5 Plan map of downtown Cahokia (adapted from Fowler 1997) 98
6.6 Late Mississippian building alignments at Cahokia’s Tracts 15A
and 15B (building alignments are adjusted to true north with
the azimuth distribution compressed by rotating orthogonal
buildings 90 degrees) 100
6.7 Locations of Cahokia’s ridge-top mounds (top) and reconstructed
contours of the Rattlesnake Mound (bottom) (adapted from Pauketat
2010a) 102
6.8 Select pit burials of women in Mound 72: top, 22 likely female
burials atop former upright post; bottom, four headless and
handless men adjacent to 53 women (from Fowler et al. 1999:
Figures 6.3 and 6.6, courtesy of the Illinois State Museum,
Springfield, Illinois) 105
6.9 Outline of the final stage of Mound 72 (from Fowler et al.
1999: Figure 3.9, courtesy of the Illinois State Museum,
Springfield, Illinois) 106
6.10 Causeways and earthen pyramids at the Fitzhugh Place site, Madison
Parish, Louisiana (from Squier and Davis 1998: Plate 39) 106
6.11 The largest of two sugarloaf mounds northeast of Cahokia (photo by
D. DeJarnette, 1956, original on file in the North American
Archaeology lab, University of Illinois, Urbana) 107
6.12 Schematic of paired Sugarloaf-Fox mounds northeast of Cahokia 108
6.13 Cypress post base from the Mitchell site, broken at ca. 1200 CE
during the attempted extraction (photograph by James W. Porter,
courtesy of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, University of
Illinois, Urbana) 112
6.14 Regional map showing the relationship of Cahokia to Emerald and
other upland locations 113
6.15 East St. Louis building alignments, Northside and Southside
(azimuth distribution compressed by rotating orthogonal
buildings 90 degrees) 114
6.16 Mitchell and Grossmann site building alignments (Grossmann building
alignments are adjusted to true north; based on data in
Alt 2006a; Porter 1974: Table 3) 115
6.17 Plan map of the Vaughn Branch site (from Jackson and
Millhouse 2003: Figure 5.1, courtesy of the Illinois State
Archaeological Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana) 116
ListofFigures xi
6.18 Plan map of the core segment of the J. Spraque site (from Holley,
Parker, Harper et al. 2001: Figure 20.14, courtesy of the Illinois
Department of Transportation, Springfield, Illinois) 117
6.19 Plan map of the John H. Faust #1 site (from Holley, Parker,
Scott et al. 2001: Figure 21.1, courtesy of the Illinois
Department of Transportation, Springfield, Illinois) 118
6.20 Shotgun Ridge site building and post alignment (adapted from
Pauketat et al. 2005) 123
6.21 T-shaped and L-shaped buildings at the Grossmann site,
southwestern Illinois 124
7.1 Schematic map of the Pfeffer site 134
7.2 Plan of rebuilt house at the Pfeffer site 135
7.3 Pfeffer site building alignments (angles relative to true north) 135
7.4 A large hoe blade from the Emerald site (recovered by a
farmer in the 1960s, photograph by the author) 139
7.5 The Great Mound at Emerald showing 1993 and 1996 profile
locations 141
7.6 Composite profile of the Emerald’s Great Mound, 1993 and 1996
excavations 142
7.7 Stacked blanket mantles in the Great Mound at Emerald, 1996 143
7.8 Emerald site showing 1997–98 ISAS excavations and locations of
mounds (map produced by Jeffery Kruchten, courtesy of the Illinois
State Archaeological Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana) 144
7.9 Emerald Avenue as observed by dark lines on 1940 USDA aerial
photograph 145
7.10 LiDAR image of the Emerald site in 2010 (image produced by
Michael Farkas, courtesy of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey,
University of Illinois, Urbana) 145
7.11 LiDAR image showing locations of mounds and inferred
organizational axes 146
7.12 Emerald site building alignments (azimuth distribution compressed by
rotating orthogonal buildings 90 degrees) 147
7.13 The Lange site: top, plan map showing possible axis and
alignments; bottom, artist’s reconstruction of a lunar minimum
observation (images produced by Jason Rein, courtesy of
Prairie Archaeology and Research, Ltd., Springfield, Illinois) 149
7.14 Burial scaffolds: top, slot trench feature sets in the Cahokia region
(adapted from Alt 2006a; D. K. Jackson, personal communication
2008); bottom, a burial platform – Apsaroke (Edward S. Curtis
collection, ca. 1908, image 2764–08, Library of Congress,
Washington, DC) 151
7.15 River Bend Estate mortuary buildings (adapted from Harl et al. 2011:
543, citing Henning 1959) 153
7.16 Schematic plan of Emerald landscape 155