Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands

Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands
Author :
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Total Pages : 560
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780759120341
ISBN-13 : 075912034X
Rating : 4/5 (41 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands by : A. Martin Byers

Download or read book Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands written by A. Martin Byers and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2011-01-16 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents an account of the Ohio Middle Woodland period embankment earthworks, ca 100 B.C. to A.D. 400, that is radically different from the prevailing theory. Byers critically addresses all the arguments and characterizations that make up the current treatment of the embankment earthworks and then presents an alternative interpretation. This unconventional view hinges on two basic social characterizations: the complementary heterarchical community model and the cult sodality heterarchy model. Byers posits that these two models interact to characterize the Ohio Middle Woodland period settlement pattern; the community was constituted by autonomous social formations: clans based on kinship and sodalities based on companionship. The individual communities of the region each have their clan components dispersed within a fairly well-defined zone while the sodality components of the same set of region-wide communities ally with each other and build and operate the embankment earthworks. This dichotomy is possible only because the clans and sodalities respect each other as relatively autonomous; the affairs of the clans, focusing on domestic and family matters, remain outside the concerns of the sodalities and the affairs of the sodalities, focusing on world renewal and sacred games, remain outside the concerns of the clans. Therefore, two models are required to understand the embankment earthworks and no individual earthwork can be identified with any particular community. This radical interpretation grounded in empirical archaeological data, as well as the in-depth overview of the current theory of the Ohio Middle Woodland period, make this book a critically important addition to the perspective of scholars of North American archaeology and scholars grappling with prehistoric social systems.


Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands Related Books

Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands
Language: en
Pages: 560
Authors: A. Martin Byers
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-01-16 - Publisher: Rowman Altamira

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The book presents an account of the Ohio Middle Woodland period embankment earthworks, ca 100 B.C. to A.D. 400, that is radically different from the prevailing
The Newark Earthworks
Language: en
Pages: 352
Authors: Lindsay Jones
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-04-01 - Publisher: University of Virginia Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Considered a wonder of the ancient world, the Newark Earthworks—the gigantic geometrical mounds of earth built nearly two thousand years ago in the Ohio valle
The Real Mound Builders of North America
Language: en
Pages: 332
Authors: A. Martin Byers
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2024-01-08 - Publisher: Lexington Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Real Mound Builders of North America contrasts the evolutionary view that emphasizes abrupt discontinuities with the Hopewellian ceremonial assemblage and m
The Evolution of Social Institutions
Language: en
Pages: 662
Authors: Dmitri M. Bondarenko
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-09-12 - Publisher: Springer Nature

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book presents a novel and innovative approach to the study of social evolution using case studies from the Old and the New World, from prehistory to the pr
Early and Middle Woodland Landscapes of the Southeast
Language: en
Pages: 363
Authors: Alice P. Wright
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-10-01 - Publisher: University Press of Florida

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Fourteen in-depth case studies incorporate empirical data with theoretical concepts such as ritual, aggregation, and place-making, highlighting the variability