Clues to Lower Mississippi Valley Histories: Language, Archaeology, and Ethnography by David V. Kaufman (review)

In Clues to Lower Mississippi Valley Histories: Language, Archaeology, and Ethnography, David V. Kaufman brings together data from three of the four subfields of anthropology. Drawing most heavily on linguistic anthropology (and linguistics more broadly), but also integrating archaeologically, historically, and ethnographically derived information, Kaufman explores the histories of populations living in and around the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). Part 1 of the book (chapters 1–3) provides an introduction to the environment, archaeology, Native cultures, and Native languages of the LMV. Part 2 (chapters 4–7) offers a detailed examination and comparison of eight LMV languages designed to reveal new insights about language contact and cultural histories. The conclusion synthesizes these two parts and evaluates the effectiveness of the interventions originally laid out in the introduction. For an archaeologist focused on the pre-Contact Native cultures of this region, this book significantly broadened my understandings of LMV histories and encouraged me to consider linguistic data more fully in my own interpretations. Moreover, by connecting LMV histories to those of neighboring regions (with particular emphasis on those along the Gulf Coast, see figure 8), Kaufman demonstrates how this work may be useful to a much wider audience and places it in conversation with a number of ongoing debates within archaeology. In this review, I will critically examine this book's utility to a wide range of scholars including linguistic anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, literary historians, and others with an interest in the LMV and neighboring regions.

Kaufman begins with two related premises that have the potential to make a significant contribution to the multidisciplinary study of LMV history. Moreover, if taken up more broadly, the scholarly shifts required by the acceptance of these premises will undoubtedly benefit anthropological and historical examinations of other regions as well. First, Kaufman argues that "in addition to archaeology and ethnography, languages can inform us about events of the past" (xiii) because languages were key to the experiences, relationships, and histories of Indigenous peoples. Second, he argues that to effectively integrate these lines of evidence, we must "extend the archaeological concept of artifact to include words and grammatical concepts—things also made by humans" (xi, emphasis original) and seriously consider these data points even when material support for a given hypothesis is lacking. Kaufman thus correctly recognizes that the lines between linguists and archaeologists are rarely crossed in contemporary anthropology and clearly outlines how this might change.

Overall, this volume represents a major step forward in this collaboration; however, it also serves as a stark reminder of the difficulties inherent in effectively reaching across (sub)disciplinary boundaries. In his introduction, Kaufman states that he "incorporate(s) and synthesize(s) archaeological and ethnographic evidence with the language evidence where appropriate" (xiii). While the inclusion of ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological evidence in a linguistic text is to be commended, he rarely integrates this data effectively. In particular, the archaeological sources he relies upon are limited and represent unusual choices; Kaufman largely bypasses current primary literature and instead cites generalized and sometimes dated secondary sources such as broad summaries written for nonspecialists, illustrated encyclopedias, and personal communications. Particularly in chapter 2 (and the final section of chapter 7), this leads to inaccuracies in the text by overemphasizing the small number of iconic sites, cultures, regions, and topics discussed in these sources and ignoring other relevant information and examples. It is thus likely that this chapter will frustrate readers well-versed in archaeology.

In chapter 3, Kaufman introduces the peoples and languages of the LMV and provides a great deal of information that is essential to understanding later chapters. Scraping together the "scanty archaeological, linguistic, and oral narrative evidence" (30), he discusses the languages and historical movements of seven LMV groups (Atakapa, Biloxi, Chitimacha, Choctaw-Chickasaw, Natchez, Ofo, and Tunica) and ties their histories to those of peripheral populations. In addition to providing the necessary background for part 2, the syntheses provided in this chapter have the...