Biological Affinities and the Construction of Cultural Identity for the Proposed Coosa Chiefdom Michaelyn S
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2010 Biological Affinities and the Construction of Cultural Identity for the Proposed Coosa Chiefdom Michaelyn S. Harle [email protected] Recommended Citation Harle, Michaelyn S., "Biological Affinities and the Construction of Cultural Identity for the Proposed Coosa Chiefdom. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2010. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/698 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Michaelyn S. Harle entitled "Biological Affinities and the Construction of Cultural Identity for the Proposed Coosa Chiefdom." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Anthropology. Lynne P. Sullivan, Gerald F. Schroedl, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Lyle W. Konigsberg, Benjamin M. Fitzpatrick Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Michaelyn S. Harle entitled “Biological Affinities and the Construction of Cultural Identity for the Proposed Coosa Chiefdom.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Anthropology. Lynne P. Sullivan Major Professor Gerald F. Schroedl Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Lyle W. Konigsberg Benjamin M. Fitzpatrick Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School BIOLOGICAL AFFINITIES AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY WITHIN THE PROPOSED COOSA CHIEFDOM A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Michaelyn Suzanne Harle April 2010 Acknowledgements The research presented here is the culmination of years of work and would not have been possible without the assistance of the individuals listed. First and foremost, I would like to thank my committee members: Dr. Lynne Sullivan, Dr. Gerald Schroedl, Dr. Lyle Konigsberg, and Dr. Benjamin Fitzpatrick. Throughout my academic career, I have benefited greatly from Dr. Sullivan’s mentorship and friendship, which has provided me with funding, research and professional opportunities, and invaluable advice. She has endured countless early drafts of this document, and this research has greatly benefitted from her editorial advice and comments. The foundation for much of this research has been influenced by her decades of scholarship in East Tennessee and by our recent collaborative work. Much of the credit for the analysis goes to Dr. Konigsberg for not only providing me with the Fortran and R code for several of the analyses, but also his advice on how to use and interpret these statistics correctly. Recently while lamenting my own statistical inadequacies, I said to someone that I could never dream of coming close to Dr. Konigsberg’s statistical brilliance. The person replied, “Well, few people could.” Never have truer words been spoken. Dr. Schroedl’s discerning eye and thought provoking questions vastly improved this dissertation. His scholarship and his work in the classroom is a source of inspiration. No other individual has shaped my thinking on what it means to be a great teacher more than Dr. Schroedl. Thanks to Dr. Fitzpatrick who offered invaluable advice as an “outsider” and made me think harder about the technical jargon I had taken for granted. A big thanks goes to the institutions and individuals that granted me access to the collections used in this study: Dr. Jefferson Chapman and Dr. Sullivan at the Frank H. McClung ii Museum, Lawrence Alexander and Associates, and Dr. David Hally and Jared Wood at the University of Georgia. I extend a debt of gratitude to Dr. Hally for providing me maps and information on the Georgia sites. The company of Bob Pennington, who was always there for a quick joke or a Barry White song when I needed it, made countless hours of data collection at the McClung Museum endurable. Many individuals at the University of Tennessee greatly assisted me throughout my academic career. Dr. David Anderson has been a great mentor, neighbor, and friend. I have learned a great deal from the countless hours spent discussing Mississippian archaeology with Bobby Braly and Shannon Koerner. Dr. Kanya Goode and Dr. Nicholas Herrmann patiently answered my panicked questions and emails regarding biodistance analysis. The individuals who really make our department run (Pam Poe, Donna Patton, Pam Bailey, and Charlene Weaver) have saved my hide more times than I can count. To my other professors and colleagues not specifically mentioned here, I thank you all. I also would like to thank my colleagues at TVA (Eric Howard, Erin Pritchard, Pat Ezzell, Richard Yarnell, Marianne Shuler, Erin Broyles, Scott Meeks, Ted Wells, Dr. Thomas Maher, and Matthew Gage). These individuals work in the frontlines of preserving our cultural heritage and I am a better archaeologist (and driver) for knowing them. My family, in-laws, my friends in Knoxville whom I collectively refer to as “Newman” (Dr. Kathryn King, Sandra Cridlin, Rachel Black, Chad Caswell, Amanda and Bob Jarrett, Cameron Howell, and Dan Marcel) and my friends back home (too many to name here, but especially Dan and Nicole McClure and John Mills) have emotionally sustained me throughout this process. My parents, Vickie and Michael Harle, have always been my biggest cheerleaders iii and for this, I will always be grateful. Perhaps no one is more relieved that this dissertation is complete more so than my husband. He has suffered much neglect and has shown much patience throughout this long and at times arduous process. Because of him, my life (and my home) is much tidier. Finally, to the individuals whose remains were the centerpiece of this research and to their descendents - I hope I have done them justice by telling just a small part of their story. iv Abstract This study couples biological data with aspects of material culture and mortuary ritual for several sites within the proposed Coosa chiefdom described by sixteenth-century Spanish accounts to explore how cultural identities were actively constructed and maintained within the region. The primary goal is to examine regional interactions between these communities and their constructions of social identity and sociopolitical dynamics vis à vis their biological affinities. Questions regarding regional interactions between these groups have been a stimulus for archaeological debate. These interactions may have played a crucial role in the construction of separate cultural identities. What is not clear is to what extent differences in cultural identity reflect or are related to differences in biological relationships. The skeletal samples used in this study represent six Late Mississippian archaeological sites assigned to three archaeological phases: the Dallas Phase, Fains Island (40JE1), Cox (40AN19), and David Davis (40HA301) sites; the Mouse Creek Phase, Ledford Island (40BY13) site; and the Barnett Phase, King (9FL5) and Little Egypt (9MU102) sites. Twenty-seven dental and 22 cranial nonmetric traits were recorded for 923 individuals. Biological affinities were calculated using the Mahalanobis D2 statistic for the cranial and dental non-metric traits. Biological Distance measures were compared to a geographic matrix to examine isolation by distance between the sites. Further analysis was conducted by constructing an R matrix to examine levels of heterogeneity. Comparisons between biological distance and geographical distances suggest that the samples used in this analysis do not conform to the expected isolation-by-distance model. Furthermore, East Tennessee groups appear distinct from their North Georgia neighbors v suggesting little biological interaction between these groups. The results of the biological distance analysis conforms to differences in material culture and mortuary ritual between these groups. The results suggests that if there was a political alliance within the region for this period it is not associated with biological relatedness nor did it act as a unifying force for individual communities’ cultural identity. vi Table of Contents CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 Regional Importance of the Study..............................................................................................................................5 Temporal Importance of the Study..........................................................................................................................10 Goals of the Study......................................................................................................................................................12