The Ohio Hopewell Episode: Paradigm Lost and Paradigm Gained

7. Subsistence, Settlement, and Ceremony

Name /uap04/22015_u07 04/28/04 01:50PM Plate # 0-Composite pg 156 # 1 ⫺1 0 ⫹1 156 Chapter 7 S U B S I S T E N C E , S E T T L E M E N T , A N D C E R E M O N Y The Inclusive Territorial/Custodial Domain Paradigm is the broad deontic ecological framework of the Proscriptive/Prescriptive Ecological Strategy Model, and the latter is the global model that applies the basic theoretical premises of this paradigm to the Ohio Hopewell . Under this model it was claimed that Ohio Hopewell can be treated as the culmination of the prehistoric development of subsistence , settlement, and ceremonial practices in the Central Ohio Valley, and, in all probability, it was a local expression of similar processes occurring across the Eastern Woodlands about the same time. In order to enhance the usefulness of this model, it is important to demonstrate the relevance of its theoretical framework, the Inclusive Territorial/ Custodial Domain Paradigm, by anchoring the latter in deep and broad prehistoric time and space. Relevance-construction begins with a brief descriptive outline of the development of the subsistence, settlement, and ceremonial practices of the Eastern Woodlands from the Archaic to the Woodland periods. This is done using primarily but not exclusively the relevant archaeological records of the Illinois and Central Mississippi regions of the Midwest. True, these regions are somewhat west of the Central Ohio Valley, but during the past several decades they have been the focus of broad research programs that, in general, surpass work done Name /uap04/22015_u07 04/28/04 01:50PM Plate # 0-Composite pg 157 # 2 s u b s i s t e n c e , s e t t l e m e n t , c e r e m o n y 157 ⫺1 0 ⫹1 during this same time in other regions of the Eastern Woodlands. Furthermore , despite the distance separating the Central Ohio Valley from this more western Midcontinental region, the overall environmental conditions and their transformations over time have been sufficiently similar to allow generalization across the Midwest. Along with this, the archaeological record of the Greater Midwest strongly supports the view that interaction among the populations in these different regions was largely continuous. Innovative changes and modifications that can be tracked in the archaeological record of one region probably had equivalent patterns in other regions. Another important reason to focus on the results of these research programs is that they resulted in the most comprehensive and influential theoretical characterizations and explanatory accounts to date of the development of the Eastern Woodlands prehistoric subsistence, settlement , and ceremonial systems.1 These are treated here as exemplary expressions of the Exclusive Territorial/Proprietorial Domain Paradigm . Therefore, in keeping with the hermeneutic spiral method, the second step in demonstrating the relevance of the approach taken by this book summarizes and then critiques these accounts. The third step, then, applies the basic premises of the Inclusive Territorial/Custodial Domain Paradigm. This demonstrates the relevance of the Inclusive Territorial/Custodial Domain Paradigm and justifies applying the Proscriptive /Prescriptive Ecological Strategy Model and its auxiliary and ancillary models to the Ohio Hopewell data. The rest of the book is devoted to this task. the arch aic -woodland trajectory in the midcontine nt The major rivers of the Midcontinent have significant floodplains with low stepped terraces. They are bracketed by fairly abrupt to steep valley sides reaching to bluffs marking the beginning of the upland hinterland, which is itself braided by small creeks that promote erosional formation along the bluffs and escarpments. The Early Holocene was initiated by the retreat of the Wisconsin ice sheet starting ca. 8000 Name /uap04/22015_u07 04/28/04 01:50PM Plate # 0-Composite pg 158 # 3 158 a n i m m a n e n t e c o l o g y ⫺1 0 ⫹1 b.c. At first the warming climate was accompanied by a rise in overall moisture so that between 8000 and 6000 b.c. the river regimes were subject to violent flooding caused by rapid down-cutting of the natural moraines holding back the last of the great glacial “inland seas.” The subsistence resource richness of the upland region was seriously diminished, ca. 6000–5000 b.c. as the moist environment of the Early Holocene shifted towards a warming and drying...