The Ohio Hopewell Episode: Paradigm Lost and Paradigm Gained

10. Cult, Clan, and Ritual Spheres

Name /uap04/22015_u10 04/28/04 01:51PM Plate # 0-Composite pg 223 # 1 ⫺1 0 ⫹1 223 Chapter 10 C U L T , C L A N , A N D R I T U A L S P H E R E S The Dual Clan-Cult Model postulates that the earthwork/habitation dichotomy manifests the simultaneous existence of at least two “virtual” and mutually autonomous locale-centric social networks, differentiated in terms of social structural axes. Specifically, it postulates that one network was based on principles of consanguineal and affinal kinship (i.e., descent and marriage), and the other was based on the principle of same-gender/same-generation companionship. Each local kinship network, constituting one or more clans, was caught up in a network of alliances of mutually autonomous peer clans, making up the clan network of a region. The custodial groups of same-gender/ same-generation companionship—life-long male companions belonging to the same age-grade—constituted world renewal cults. Each cult was an autonomous sodality, autonomous from both the local clan network and from each other, and, typically, each was responsible for building and using one or more earthwork locales. Because of the inclusive nature of the custodial system, and because the cult system was based on companionship rather than kinship, local cults would draw membership from both proximal and distal clan networks. Furthermore, because of its specialized ritual nature, the social reach of a world renewal cult would extend indefinitely through ramifying contacts with similar cults, allowing for the development of Name /uap04/22015_u10 04/28/04 01:51PM Plate # 0-Composite pg 224 # 2 224 a n i m m a n e n t e c o l o g y ⫺1 0 ⫹1 transregional networks, as manifested in widespread stylistic patterns. The point of these alliances would be both to enhance the effects of world renewal ritual and, very importantly, to gain knowledge of and access to widely distributed raw materials that were perceived as critical in the production of ritual warrants, such as obsidian, selected cherts, ocean shells, copper, silver, mica, and so on. Undergirding the dynamics of this interaction would be the pursuit of the cult’s reputation. In contrast to the far-flung relations of the cults, the geographical scope of clans would be largely limited to their own and neighboring drainages , and mediated through marriage alliances. It is worth repeating here that the age-grade structure is an ancient institution tightly tied into Native American cultures, structuring religious, military, subsistence, and artisanal specialization. As Hall argues , among Siouian-speaking peoples, age-grade structures having initiation and world renewal ritual duties may reach back well into the Middle Woodland and, if the association of bannerstones with the central constitutive warrant of initiation in the Hidatsa and Crow Stone Hammer Societies is valid, probably into the Middle Archaic.1 Following the Dispersed Hamlet/Vacant Center Model in this one regard, the Dual Clan-Cult Model postulates that, in keeping with the small size, redundant patterning, and dispersed distribution of habitation locales, the domestic units would be nuclear and small extended families. The heads of the units in a local network cluster such as the Murphy Tract site would be lineage and clan siblings. Therefore, egalitarian principles would have prevailed in terms of interhabitational leadership relations. However, since the principle of unilineal descent is based on subordination of the junior to the senior generation, the extended family of the domestic unit would be hierarchically structured by generations. In contrast to the hierarchical nature of ascribed kinship positions, because the world renewal cults of male companions were organized as age cohorts, cult membership would probably be voluntary , and internal relations would have been structured on equality. As such, it is an excellent context for the promotion of communitas.2 Much the same ecological conditions that promoted age cohort Name /uap04/22015_u10 04/28/04 01:51PM Plate # 0-Composite pg 225 # 3 c u l t , c l a n , a n d r i t u a l s p h e r e s 225 ⫺1 0 ⫹1 peer interaction that were postulated for the Archaic would prevail in the Early and Middle Woodland periods. Systems of dispersed domestic habitation locales may have had certain benefits with regard to gardening and extensive wild plant foraging, but as small extended families , organizing cooperative...