Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes, and: Method and Theory in American Archaeology (review)

Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips's Method and Theory in American Archaeology and C. C. Jones's Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes are two volumes that have achieved the distinction of being considered "classics" among anthropological works. Senior North American archaeologists have been prescribing heavy doses of C. C. Jones for their graduate students for over a century. Willey and Phillips have, no doubt, acquired an even wider readership. But what utility can works published in the early days of archaeology, one while it was still in its infancy and the other when it was a largely descriptive endeavor, have for the modern discipline?

Jones's Antiquities, originally published in 1873, is both a catalog of prehistoric material culture in the American Southeast and an account of how this material culture was still being used by local Native American groups during the nineteenth century. In addition, Jones reviews historic accounts, exploratory reports, and memoirs in an effort to compile as much information as was available in his day concerning the social organization, economy, religion, and daily activities of the "southern tribes." Jones was a pioneer in his use of ethnography as an analogy for explaining the use of tools, monuments, and weaponry by indigenous groups. He provides a valuable link between the material remains of ancient societies and the past technologies, industries, and cultural phenomena that employed these objects. One can't help but be intrigued by the many vivid descriptions of long-abandoned technologies such as the following: "They prepared their [deer] skins first soaking them in water. The hair was then removed by the aid of a bone or stone scraper. Deer's brains were next dissolved in water, and in this mixture were allowed to remain until they became thoroughly saturated. They were then gently dried, and, while drying, were continually worked by hand and scraped with an oyster-shell or some suitable stone implement to free them from impurity and render them soft and pliable" (62).

Admittedly, one must read Antiquities with a critical eye, looking at what Jones says in the light of modern archaeological understanding. For example, Jones oftentimes uses loaded terms, such as "king," "queen," "city," or "nation," to encompass a much broader definition than most researchers today would prefer. However, it is also apparent from his very descriptive writing style that when Jones uses a term like "king" he is talking about an altogether very different type of "king" than the nobles of Europe with which he was most familiar. And his use of such terms probably has more to do with a lack of suitable alternatives (for his time) combined with their use in the original exploratory accounts, which he was reviewing.

Reading Antiquities of the Southern Indians reveals why this book has so often been required reading for students of southeastern prehistory. It is a volume that made one of the first attempts in American archaeology to look beyond the artifacts and see the human beings who used them.

Method and Theory in American Archaeology, originally published in 1958, is another landmark publication that has been required reading for countless students of American archaeology. The volume was originally published as two separate articles in the early 1950s, and the book is a revised and extended version of Willey and Phillips's original arguments in response to comments and criticisms from other archaeologists. It represents one of the initial attempts at synthesis and classification of what was then known...