A Quest for Meaning at the Early 16Th-Century St
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A QUEST FOR MEANING AT THE EARLY 16TH-CENTURY ST. LAWRENCE IROQUOIAN MAYNARD-McKEOWN SITE By Joyce M. Wright Department of Anthropology McGill University, Montreal July 2009 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. © Joyce M. 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ABSTRACT The Maynard-McKeown site is an early 16th-century St. Lawrence Iroquoian village situated near present-day Prescott, Ontario. During the summer of 1987 approximately a quarter of the 1.6 hectare settlement was excavated, including all or portions of twenty-three longhouses, multiple palisades, a defensive ditch, two sweatlodges, and numerous other features of social significance. To date, this site constitutes the largest excavation of a St. Lawrence Iroquoian site in either Canada or the United States and the only such site that has produced evidence of trade with Europeans. It is also one of only a few sites attributable to what was probably a confederation of tribes for which strong contextual data exists. The availability of these data presents the as yet rare opportunity to assess hypotheses concerning the past behaviour of this now culturally extinct people. Historic and ethnographic evidence indicates that past Iroquoian cosmology was premised on the tenuousness of human and horticultural vitality and the means by which these could be addressed for the betterment of the populace. Commonly expressed through an emphasis on such opposing dualities as men and women, destruction and creation, hunting and horticulture, and extra- societal influence versus intra-societal influence, these efforts were ultimately perceived as complementary and, consequently, socially sustaining. Material culture and settlement pattern data from the Maynard-McKeown site was used to gain an improved appreciation for some of the ways in which this cosmology is reflected in the archaeological record. In particular, attention was paid to the interpretation of individual ritual features, purification structures including the two aforementioned sweatlodges and a possible woman’s house, longhouses for indications of clan ownership, and material culture iconography. Analysis was facilitated through extensive recourse to extant historic, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence concerning other Iroquoian sites and cultures. ii RÉSUMÉ Le site Maynard-McKeown regroupe les vestiges d’un village d’Iroquoïens du Saint-Laurent. Trouvé près de la ville actuelle de Prescott, en Ontario, ce site date du XVIe siècle. Pendant l’été 1987, environ le quart de ses 1.6 hectare a été fouillé. On y a fouillé des parties ou l’ensemble de 23 maisons longues, plusieurs palissades, une tranchée, deux huttes à sudation et de nombreux autres vestiges ayant une portée sociale. Aucun autre site Iroquoïen du Saint-Laurent n’a donné lieu à des fouilles aussi extensives que celui de Maynard-McKeown ; c’est aussi le seul à fournir des preuves d’échanges commerciaux avec des Européens. De plus, il s’agit de l’un des seuls sites qui comporte d’importantes données contextuelles et que l’on puisse attribuer à cette confédération de tribus. Ces données permettent maintenant d’évaluer des hypothèses au sujet du comportement ancien de cette population dont la culture s’est éteinte. Ainsi, selon des sources historiques et ethnographiques, la cosmologie iroquoïenne aurait été axée sur la précarité des récoltes et de la vie humaine, ainsi que les stratégies pouvant contrer cette précarité au bénéfice de la communauté. Ces efforts étaient exprimés à travers des dualités perçues comme complémentaires et donc positifs pour la société, telles que le masculin et le féminin, la destruction et la création, la chasse et l’horticulture, et les influences venant de l’intérieur et de l’extérieur de la société. Cette reconstruction de la cosmologie iroquoïenne est enrichie par l’examen de ses vestiges matériels et par des données sur la disposition du peuplement. Plusieurs éléments du site ont été analysés en cette optique, par exemple des vestiges à portée rituelle, des structures visant la purification telles que les deux huttes de sudation et une maison attribuée aux femmes, des maisons longues pouvant comporter des indices d’appartenance à un clan, et l’iconographie de la culture matérielle. Cette analyse fait également appel aux publications historiques, ethnographiques, et archéologiques qui décrivent les divers sites et cultures iroquoïens. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to Dr. James V. Wright and Dr. Bruce G. Trigger. The legacy they leave is one of solid scholarship produced by minds of wide-ranging interests and corresponding perspective, commitment to the growth and development of Canadian archaeology, and dedication to the ancestors whom they served for their lifetimes and have so recently joined. I honour and sorely miss them both. Yet... “Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ulysses. Dr. James V. Wright (1932-2004) Dr. Bruce G. Trigger (1937-2006) iv ACKNOWLDEGEMENTS For me, the journey that has so many years later culminated in this thesis began when I was hired as a cataloguer at the Maynard-McKeown site during its excavation in the summer of 1987. That mammoth undertaking would not have been possible without the extraordinary effort of two individuals, the late Dr. James F. Pendergast and my mother Dawn M. Wright. The project itself was initiated by Jim who adroitly negotiated an incomprehensibly complex labyrinth of government bureaucracy, native politics, and funding agencies in order to procure the necessary permissions and financial support. Although he was not able to produce a report on the site before his death from cancer in 2000, he did author several articles dealing with its excavation either in whole or in part. Dawn, who had been involved in the Nodwell site excavation and was, therefore, one of the few people in Ontario at that time with large-scale Iroquoian site excavation experience, directed the field operations. Without her dedication, only a fraction of what was excavated that summer would have been uncovered. That so much was accomplished in those few short months is truly remarkable given the frequent redirection of her energies, and those of her crew, to hosting literally thousands of visitors to the site including school children by the bus load, television, print, and radio reporters, North American scholars, an international congress of quaternary scientists, and interested locals. It was also she who insisted that nearly twenty- seven tonnes of feature fill be Dawn Wright and Jim Pendergast during transported to her home where she the 1987 excavation of the Maynard- and my late father, Dr. James V. McKeown site. Wright, processed it over the course of two subsequent summers. They did this gratis for the benefit of our collective understanding of St. Lawrence Iroquoian archaeology as no granting body was willing to provide support for such an undertaking. With regard to the preparation of this thesis, her knowledge of the site and the procedures implemented in its excavation has been of incalculable assistance. Others who contributed to the excavation of the site that summer include: Jerome Cook, Arnie Feast, Marylou Gervais, Julie Galbraith, Jennifer Grover, Gretchen Keenan, Connie O’Shaugnessy, Paul Prince, Lisa Rankin, Francis Scardera, Steve Sunday, and Brent Wimmer. Part of the faunal collection was later contracted out to Ostéothèque de Montréal for analysis and I would like to thank Michelle Courtemanche for providing me with a copy of the resulting report. v Although the present document does not replace the need for a descriptive site report, it does constitute the first major study of the site’s settlement pattern and material culture. The possibility that I might do this did not actually occur to me until sometime after Dr. Bruce G.