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11. Trade and the Evolution of Relations at the Beginning of the Mississippian Period
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James A. Brown, Richard A. Kerber, and Howard D. Winters Chapter 11 1Iade and the Evolution of Exchange Relations at the Beginning of the Mississippian Period INTRODUCTION The subject of intergroup trade holds a minor place in Mississippian period archaeology. In only a handful of studies has this subject been related in any significant way to larger topics of economy, society, and ecology. As a consequence, it has been relegated to a subsidiary place in portrayals of the period (Griffin 1967, 1985). A measure ofits unimportance is the short notice given in two recent overviews (Smith 1986; Steponaitis 1986a). The status of trade, however, needs to be upgraded , if for no other reason than to provide information on the relationship between the growth of political centralization and the development of trade networks, which are central topics in most discussions of hierarchical societies in other parts of the world. There are three aspects of trade that require systematic research before the subject can begin to yield useful information. First, the raw materials of traded objects need to be accurately sourced to develop a pattern of exchange relations (Plog 1977). Second, the relative value of objects has to be identified, and third, the objects have to be distinguished by context of manufacture , use, and consumption. On aU fronts, some advances have been made in recent years that hold hope for the development of more sophisticated approaches to a subject that has long been dominated by a trait list approach (Holmes 1919). In this chapter various strands of admittedly incomplete and problematical data are brought together in an effort to demonstrate how certain approaches to the exchange relations underlying trade can contribute to .a sharper understanding of the social and political changes heralded by the beginning of the Mississippian period. 1tade is not necessarily conceived of as providing the crucial answers to questions posed by these changes. Merely, that the subject of trade is probably as important to their solution as the traditionally central subjects of subsistence and settlement changes. The subject of this chapter is intergroup exchange, which archaeologically is accessible mainly through evidence of trade. For purposes here it will be equated with the movement of durable goods and other objects rather than as a specific type of such transfer, such as truck or barter (Renfrew 1975:4). 1tade is only an aspect of external relations. It clearly has to share a place with warfare and intermarriage. As Dalton stated, "Warfare, trade, and marriage meant external relationships of hostility and alliance, relations of antagonism and dependence, the opposite of isolation and selfsufficiency " (Dalton 1977:200). Thus, food, marriage mates, and valuables become simply alternative spheres ofthe larger political economy (Dalton 1977). Because exchange is the major vehicle by which smallscale societies conduct external relations, the trade part of exchange provides us with an instrument to investigate the changing relations of societies with each other and the changes within components of individual societies (Friedman 1975; Service 1975). This chapter will offer a perspective on trade in the early phases of the Mississippian period by relying on 251 252 Brown, Kerber, and Winters a handful of artifact distributions to address some selected questions about the prehistory of this period. The area of study is confined to part of the eastern Woodlands that includes the Southeast (according to the definition in The Handbook of North American Indians) and the Mississippi River valley to the west and north. Excluded are the Great Lakes and the drainage of the At1antic seaboard. The principal example-Mill Creek chert hoes-rests on data collected by Howard Winters. THE PLACE OF TRADE IN MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD STUDIES Discussion of the changes around the A.D. 1000 timeline is best begun by reviewing the perspectives for trade in the Mississippian period. Two distinct areas of scholarship have been established that have onlyoccasionally been brought together (Brown 1983; Winters 1981). First, there has been an interest in sourcing objects imported into sites, particularly those of distant origin (Bell 1947; Jones 1939; Peebles 1971). Second, there has been a fascination with the objects of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex as a cultural phenomena , complete with the necessity that it has a distinct areal distribution and a proper time slot (Waring 1968; Waring and Holder 1945). By making the Complex possess all these essential properties of a culture (cult in shorthand), its artifacts and subject matter are almost entirely excluded from the economic sphere. As a consequence, the separation from exchange is made all the...