Cover -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Preface -- 1. Mississippian Mortuary Practices and the Quest for Interpretation -- 2. The Missing Persons in Mississippian Mortuaries -- 3. Cosmological Layouts of Secondary Burials as Political Instruments -- 4. Multiple Groups, Overlapping Symbols, and the Creation of a Sacred Space at Etowah's Mound C -- 5. Social and Spatial Dimensions of Moundville Mortuary Practices -- 6. Aztalan Mortuary Practices Revisited -- 7. Mississippian Dimensions of a Fort Ancient Mortuary Program: The Development of Authority and Spatial Grammar at SunWatch Village -- 8. Temporal Changes in Mortuary Behavior: Evidence from the Middle and Upper Nodena Sites, Arkansas -- 9. The Materialization of Status and Social Structure at Koger's Island Cemetery, Alabama -- 10. Pecan Point as the "Capital" of Pacaha: A Mortuary Perspective -- 11. Mound Construction and Community Changes within the Mississippian Community at Town Creek -- 12. Mortuary Practices and Cultural Identity at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century in Eastern Tennessee -- 13. The Mortuary Assemblage from the Holliston Mills Site, a Mississippian Town in Upper East Tennessee -- 14. Caves as Mortuary Contexts in the Southeast -- References Cited -- Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W.

The residents of Mississippian towns principally located in the southeastern and midwestern United States from 900 to1500 A.D. made many beautiful objects, which included elaborate and well-crafted copper and shell ornaments, pottery vessels, and stonework. Some of these objects were socially valued goods and often were placed in ritual context, such as graves. The funerary context of these artifacts has sparked considerable study and debate among archaeologists, raising questions about the place in society of the individuals interred with such items, as well as the nature of the societies in which these people lived. By focusing on how mortuary practices serve as symbols of beliefs and values for the living, the contributors to Mississippian Mortuary Practices explore how burial of the dead reflects and reinforces the cosmology of specific cultures, the status of living participants in the burial ceremony, ongoing kin relationships, and other aspects of social organization.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.