A Multidimensional Investigation of Biocultural Relationships among Three Late Prehistoric Societies in Tennessee

Bibliographic Data

ID2575235
AuthorsC Clifford Boyd (Radford University, corresponding author), Donna C Boyd (Radford University)
Year1991
Volume56
Issue1
Pages75-88
Publication date1991-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/280974
OpenAlexW1987254966
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited6

Interrelations among three roughly contemporaneous late prehistoric Mississippian societies in Middle and East Tennessee are reexamined in terms of currently available biological, archaeological, and ethnohistoric data. Previous researchers have suggested a close relation between two of those cultures-Mouse Creek and Middle Cumberland-to the exclusion of the third, Dallas. However, multivariate analyses of craniofacial and mandibular dimensions of individuals from the three groups suggest a greater biological relation between Dallas and Mouse Creek than between Mouse Creek and Middle Cumberland. In addition, a comparison of intrasite settlement patterning, ceramic and mortuary variability, and ethnohistoric data across the three groups support the skeletal analysis. Relations between Dallas and Mouse Creek may mirror similar processes of sociopolitical reorganization occurring throughout the Southeast in the late prehistoric period

Archaeology · Geography · Period (music) · Prehistory · Settlement (finance) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History