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1 Introduction Patricia M. Lambert This edited volume had its origins in a symposium of the same name organized for the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Durham, North Carolina. The purpose of the symposium was to move a step beyond studies emphasizing the health consequences of the shift from foraging to farming , to focus instead on variability within societies and regions that had already made this economic transition. Bioarchaeological studies of cultural transitions have provided a wealth of information on the biological costs and consequences of certain lifestyles and lifestyle transitions (e.g., Cohen and Armelagos 1984; Larsen 1987, 1995, 1997). They have commonly documented the deleterious consequences of a heavy dependence on maize and other storable seed cultigens (see Cohen and Armelagos 1984) but have also demonstrated the human capacity to adapt to new ecological situations (e.g., Cook and Buikstra 1979; Rose et al. 1984). The focus on subsistence has sometimes led to unilinear explanations invoking maize as the ultimate culprit in changing patterns of health in prehistoric New World populations, but as Cook (1984:262) cautioned back in the 1980s, “the complicated array of variables—both cultural and ecological—that are linked to subsistence must be understood before we have an adequate context in which to evaluate health changes.” Indeed, those societies encompassed in the Southeast cultural tradition broadly de¤ned as Mississippian based on shared participation in cleared ¤eld agriculture, hierarchical social or- ganization, and religion were actually quite variable politically and economically (C. Scarry 1993b; J. Scarry 1996). Bioarchaeological research has further shown that the human condition varied considerably in accordance with this diversity (Buikstra 1991). Nonetheless, a stagelike economic progression associated with a concomitant and predictable health decline remains a prominent view of human existence. In this volume, the contributing authors take a closer look at populations commonly lumped into a single cultural category, in this case subsistence agriculturalists, in order to explore variation in the diet, health, and behavior of late prehistoric and early historic peoples of the southeastern United States. Although most of the chapters in this volume focus on the age of intensive maize cultivation, which had its inception in the last millennium , agricultural production in the Southeast can actually be traced back some 4000 years to the appearance of native domesticates (e.g., cucurbits and sumpweed) in midcontinental Archaic sites (Smith 1992; Yarnell 1993). Maize, a tropical import that ¤gured importantly as a dietary staple only in the last few centuries before European contact , appeared in the region about 2000 years later (Fritz 1993) and did not seriously displace native seed crops until after a.d. 1000 (Yarnell 1993). With the intensi¤cation of maize agriculture came the development of the large and well-known political centers at Cahokia, Moundville , and Etowah. Because of their impressive size and monumental architecture, these polities have often been the focus of discussions on late prehistoric developments in the Southeast. However, many smaller polities existed conterminously with these great centers (Rogers and Smith 1995; J. Scarry 1996), varying in size, scale, and economy in accordance with the diverse environments in which cultural developments took place (J. Scarry 1996). This variability is an increasing focus of Southeastern archaeologists as they grapple with the problem of cultural evolution in the late prehistory of this region (e.g., Rogers and Smith 1995). The purpose of this volume is twofold: to take a closer look at variability in those cultural parameters that lend themselves to osteological investigation (e.g., subsistence practices, warfare, ethnic identity) and to examine the relationship of disease, environment, and lifeways. The results are not always as envisioned. Epidemiological considerations might lead one to predict, for example, that infectious disease would be more of a problem in a populous setting such as Moundville than in a rural village on the North Carolina piedmont because large host populations are more likely to maintain infectious pathogens and to foster conditions conducive to their spread. But it is not unreasonable to assume that bene¤ts to living in large centers might translate into healthier and safer living conditions. Large polities such as 2 Lambert Moundville tended to form in rich bottomland environments, where resources were abundant, predictable, and transferrable (C. Scarry 1993a; J. Scarry 1996), and an adequate food supply can help to mitigate the impact of infectious disease. This is just one of the many related issues explored by papers that span the entire Southeast region, from Texas in the west...

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