Understanding the Development of Hierarchical Social Organization

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

The fundamental goal of this research is to better understand the processes and mechanisms by which small scale traditional societies merged into larger social units and developed hierarchical social organization. The investigators believe that religious ritual and shared beliefs can play a role in this process as throughout history religious rituals have been documented occurring alongside such development. This research has current day relevance given the importance of religion as both an integrative and divisive force as evidenced in much of the developing world. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Neill Wallis and Dr. John Krigbaum will investigate the development, spread, and impact of extensive religious rituals among Florida populations ca. A.D. 200 to 600 using a variety of analytical tools and archival research. The mortuary practices of this Middle Woodland period, referred to as "Weeden Island", show widespread and conspicuous uniformity that is characteristic of a religious movement. The proliferation of these practices was apparently coincident with increasingly integrated social networks and emergent high status for some individuals. Given these associations, the project examines the role of Weeden Island rituality in the initiation of emergent social inequality through investigation of human diet, mobility, social interaction, and community formation. In the context of conspicuous religious parity, this research endeavors to identify exactly how disparate communities interacted with one another, how integrated they were, and how these trends inflected social and political histories in the region. Drawing on collections and archived field notes from 13 Middle Woodland mound sites distributed across peninsular Florida and curated at the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), this research will integrate (1) multiple lines of isotopic analysis of skeletal populations to generate data pertaining to diet and mobility, (2) osteological analysis to collect basic demographic and life history information on individual interments, (3) geochemical and petrographic analysis on Weeden Island mortuary wares to determine their ultimate provenance, and (4) technofunctional analysis to outline form and function of vessels and the potential for craft specialization. In addition, the uniformity of Weeden Island ritual practices will be evaluated through investigation of archived notes. These data and the correlation of variables will reveal specific historical trends in the practice and spread of Weeden Island rituality and its sociopolitical implications. The broader impacts of the study include contributions to archaeological method and social theory, the training of students, and public outreach and education. In terms of method, the analytical protocol builds on established techniques and combines them in innovative ways. These data lend a rare multidimensional robustness to the investigation of the complex region-wide phenomenon of Weeden Island, permitting more nuanced and potentially transformative understandings of the movement and life histories of Middle Woodland people and objects. At a theoretical level, through its focus on mobility and intergroup interactions, the project redirects the search for causes of social inequality toward a historical investigation of the process of community formation at regional scales, and has anthropological implications for explaining the intersections of religion, identity, and political conflict. The project provides advanced training and research experience for at least two Ph.D. students and several undergraduate museum and laboratory interns, and will form the basis for Ph.D. dissertations, and M.A. and honors theses. Results will be disseminated broadly and showcased through an Explore Research exhibit at the FLMNH and a companion website. In addition to scientific publications, archived data will be made freely available online.