Toward a Situational Approach to Understanding Middle Woodland Societies in the North American Midcontinent

ABSTRACT

Elaborate Middle Woodland (ca. cal 200 BC–cal AD 500) mounds and exotic artifacts traded over long distances provide evidence for institutions that helped coordinate the gathering of large communal groups on the ancient midcontinent. However, the material heterogeneity archaeologists have documented for these societies suggests diverse material, historical, and social forces motivated communal gatherings. In this article, we introduce Middle Woodland Ceremonial Situations in the North American Midcontinent, our guest-edited issue of the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. Contributions to this issue wrestle with the notion of “situations,” as developed by sociocultural anthropologists, to better understand the archaeological record of the Middle Woodland midcontinent. In doing so, the contributors propose new ways to frame the scalar and temporal diversity of Middle Woodland ceremonialism by focusing on the material evidence for situations where people, earth, and things converged in different ways and times to shape the ceremonial landscape of the midcontinent.

KEYWORDS:

• Situations
• assemblages
• ceremonialism
• Adena and Hopewell
• Middle Woodland
• eastern North America

Notes on the Contributors

Edward R. Henry is an assistant professor of anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. He earned a PhD from Washington University in St. Louis and MA degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Mississippi in University, MS. Henry’s research has focused on the landscapes and organization of small-scale societies from central Asia to eastern North America. However, most of his research explores the context of religious, economic, and political institutions in Middle Woodland (ca. 200 BC–AD 500) societies and the landscapes they inhabited across the eastern United States.

Logan Miller is an associate professor of anthropology at Illinois State University in Normal, IL. He received his MA and PhD from Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Much of his research utilizes lithic analysis to understand lifeways of the Paleoindian and Middle Woodland periods. He currently directs field research at the Langford Tradition village of Noble-Wieting in central Illinois.