The Calusa: Linguistic and Cultural Origins and Relationships

7. The Calusa and the Weeden Island Gulf Tradition

7 The Calusa and the Weeden island Gulf Tradition What archaeologists refer to as Weeden island cultures covers a variety of site and artifactual patterns along the Gulf coast from the manasota area in coastal west Central florida, from just north of Charlotte harbor to just north of Tampa bay, and northward and westwardalongthepeninsularGulfcoasttothewestof Timucua territoryandbeyondacrossnorthwestfloridaand ,underothernames, into Alabama, mississippi, and, as defined by brown (1984:122– 123), as far as the Petite Anse region of southern Louisiana. These related archaeological cultures span the period from approximately a.d. 150 to a.d. 1000. Though with significant regional differences, all sites under this aegis have enough in common to place them together as a single very broadly defined culture type, a culture type that does not occur in other parts of interior Central or east florida. These differences were first noted and described by John Goggin and defined by him as the major component of what he referred to as the Gulf Tradition (Goggin 1949:34–39). sixty years later with considerable additional excavation and analysis these unifying similaritiesanddifferenceshavebeenwelldefinedbyJeraldmilanichand his colleagues (milanich 1994:155–241; milanich et al. 1984). The gist of this later description is, as Goggin originally pointedout,that Calusa and the Weeden island Gulf Tradition / 59 Weedenislandarchaeologicalculturesdifferwidely from the Timucua culturesofnortheastfloridaandthemayaca,Jororo,surruque,and Ais cultures of central and coastal east florida in that they show a markeddistinctionbetweenutilitarianartifactsandceremonialartifacts in form, style, and use as well as the site types or site segments in which they are found—utilitarian wares in village sites, ceremonial wares, usually in animal form, almost exclusively in ceremonial and burial mounds. The underlying social and ceremonial differences that set these cultures apart from other florida cultures have been well described by Knight (1986) as well as by the authors cited above. They are archaeologically distinctive and unique. With Weeden island cultures we are dealing with a long-lasting culture type not typical of the rest of florida at any time period. We are dealing with cultures the earliest of which show the beginnings of southeastern ceremonialism and the later of which, such as what remains of the largely destroyed Crystal River site in Citrus County and the almost totally vandalized, nearly destroyed Polk field mound site in Dixie County, show something closely approaching full-fledged mississippian ceremonialism, reflected in both artifactual types and styles and site types. The fact that in florida such sites occur almost exclusively in the west-coast corridor leading from just north of Calusa lands in south florida north across the florida, Alabama, mississippi, and Louisiana Gulf coast periphery, that some decidedly Calusa place names occur as far north as the suwannee-Withlacoochee area in this corridor , and that all ethnographic information—on the Tocobaga, for example—matchesthemississippiansocialpattern,particularlythe Louisiana natchez pattern, would seem to indicate that we are dealingwithaseriesofceremoniallyorientedpeopleorpeoplesthrough out what i have called the Weeden island Corridor. how far back in 60 / Chapter 7 time that ceremonialism characterized these sites and their inhabitants is impossible to say until we have considerably more data on the cultures, their dates, and their sources. even at this stage of our knowledge, however, there seems a clear link between the known, documented mississippian social patterns of the historic Calusa to the archaeologically indicated mississippian natchez-like social patterns of the Weeden island peoples, regardless of the obvious fact that the Calusa patrilineal social patterns differ from the social patterns of the natchez. The fit, regardless of the seeming, probable matrilineal social patterns of the Weeden island peoples, is, to this writer,tooclosetosimplyassumecoincidence,regardlessof the present lack of full, certain archaeological proof. The fit is, in effect, a hypothesis that should be investigated on a firm base of data, which as yet has not been done. it should also be immediately pointed out that the similarities noted here do not imply that the Calusa people or culture is descended from Weeden island sources—but simply that there is a possible cultural connection, difficult at this stage of our lack of knowledge to define. The heartland of earliestWeeden islandculturesisclearlyin north and northwest florida spreading into Georgia and Alabama (milanich 1994:160). south of this region along the central west coast of florida similar archaeological cultures, such as the manasota period culture, are found. milanich (1994:163) divides Weeden island sites into seven geographically differentiated groups and points out that all of these sites, while differing in settlement and economic patterns, show...