Jennifer Birch

COALESCENT COMMUNITIES: SETTLEMENT AGGREGATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION IN IROQUOIAN ONTARIO

Abstract This paper explores processes of settlement aggregation among ancestral Huron-Wendat populations in south-central Ontario, Canada. During the fifteenth century A.D., numerous small communities came together, forming large, fortified village aggregates. In order to understand these processes a multiscalar analytical approach was combined with a conceptual framework emphasizing cross-cultural perspectives on coalescent societies, the archaeology of communities, and historical trajectories of societal change. Regional settlement data are presented to illustrate the movement and increasing size of settlements. In order to determine how individual coalescent communities were formed and maintained, a single village relocation sequence is examined in detail. This sequence illustrates how people constructed, inhabited, and negotiated domestic and public spaces in these new community aggregates. Detailed analyses of the occupational histories of these sites point to the creation of new community-based identities, corporate decision-making structures, and increasing social integration over time. The results of this study demonstrate that while settlement aggregation can be documented at the regional level, only detailed intrasite analyses can identify the small-scale changes in practice that reflect the lived experience of coalescence.

Nation Building and Social Signaling in Southern Ontario : A.D. 1350–1650

Pottery is a mainstay of archaeological analysis worldwide. Often, high proportions of the pottery recovered from a given site are decorated in some manner. In northern Iroquoia, late pre-contact pottery and early contact decoration commonly occur on collars—thick bands of clay that encircle a pot and extend several centimeters down from the lip. These decorations constitute signals that conveyed information about a pot’s user(s). In southern Ontario the period A.D. 1350 to 1650 witnessed substantial changes in socio-political and settlement systems that included population movement, coalescence of formerly separate communities into large villages and towns, waxing and waning of regional strife, the formation of nations, and finally the development of three confederacies that each occupied distinct, constricted areas. Social network analysis demonstrates that signaling practices changed to reflect these regional patterns. Networks become more consolidated through time ultimately resulting in a “small world” network with small degrees of separation between sites reflecting the integration of communities within and between the three confederacies.

Effects of population dispersal on regional signaling networks: An example from northern Iroquoia

Social network analyses show St. Lawrence Iroquoians as brokers between nascent Iroquois and Huron confederacies before A.D. 1500. The dispersal of Iroquoian groups from St. Lawrence River valley during the 15th and 16th centuries A.D. has been a source of archaeological inquiry for decades. Social network analysis presented here indicates that sites from Jefferson County, New York at the head of the St. Lawrence River controlled interactions within regional social signaling networks during the 15th century A.D. Measures indicate that Jefferson County sites were in brokerage liaison positions between sites in New York and Ontario. In the network for the subsequent century, to which no Jefferson County sites are assigned, no single group took the place of Jefferson County in controlling network flow. The dispersal of Jefferson County populations effectively ended this brokerage function concomitant with the emergence of the nascent Huron-Wendat and Iroquois confederacies and may have contributed to the escalation of conflict between these entities. These results add to a growing literature on the use of network analyses with archaeological data and contribute new insights into processes of population relocation and geopolitical realignment, as well as the role of borderlands and frontiers in nonstate societies.

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND NORTHERN IROQUOIAN CONFEDERACY DYNAMICS

The Wendat (Huron) and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) confederacies of northeastern North America are often presented as functionally equivalent political formations despite their having distinct cultural traits and unique geopolitical and developmental histories. In this article we employ social network analysis of collar decoration on ceramic vessels both to examine organizational differences in the social network that composed each group and to evaluate womens participation in political activities as potters who produced and transmitted social and political signals. The concept of social capital and the dimensions along which it varies are employed to understand variability in network statistics and topologies. Our results indicate that the Wendat confederacy formed a “complete” network characterized by bonding ties of social capital, whereas the Haudenosaunee confederacy was a “coalitional” network characterized by bridging ties. The results suggest that womens signaling networks were integral to how each confederacy functioned and the norms of reciprocity, trust, and information-sharing that defined each political formation. Les confédérations des Wendat des Haudenosaunee du nord-est de lAmérique du Nord sont souvent présentées comme des formations politiques similaires malgré leurs différences culturelles, géopolitiques et selon lhistorique de leur développement. Dans cet article, nous utilisons lanalyse de réseau social (SNA) à partir de décorations sur les rebords de poteries pour examiner les différences entre lorganisation sociale des deux groupes, et aussi pour évaluer la participation des femmes dans les activités politiques comme potières, lesquelles créent et transmettent des signaux sociaux et politiques. Le concept de capital social et les dimensions dans lequel il varie sont utilisés pour comprendre les variabilités statistiques et les topologies du réseau. Nos résultats indiquent que la confédération Wendat a formé un réseau « complet » caractérisé par des liens sociaux, tandis que la confédération Haudenosaunée était un réseau « de coalition », caractérisé pour relier les relations. Les résultats suggèrent que les réseaux de signalisation des femmes des confédérations étaient intégrés selon le fonctionnement de chacune des confédérations, en fonction de leurs propres normes de réciprocité, de confiance et de partage dinformations qui définissaient chaque formation politique.

A Comparative Analysis of the Late Woodland–early Mississippian Settlement Landscape in Northern Georgia

To understand the development of complex socio-political phenomena, we need to study not just the origins of central places, but also their emergence. This can be accomplished by taking an historical perspective where we position ourselves before the occurrence we wish to study. Data from the Georgia Archaeological Site File are presented to explore the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian (ca. A.D. 600–1,100) settlement landscape which contextualized the emergence of two prominent Mississippian mound centers: Macon Plateau (also known as Ocmulgee) and Etowah. Our results suggest that the Etowah River valley supported a denser population who had formed attachments to particular points in the landscape compared to the region surrounding Macon Plateau during the Late Woodland to Early Mississippian transition. These social landscapes provided different contexts for the origins of each Mississippian center and influenced later trajectories of cultural development and settlement in each region.

Corey Village and the Cayuga World: Implications from Archaeology and Beyond. Jack Rossen, editor. 2015. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, xiv + 235 pp.

Middle Fraser Canyon to illustrate the importance of ecology, archaeology, and ethnography in reconstructing the complex and varied socioeconomic patterns of the past. Ultimately, this volume offers a set of interesting cases studies, built around themes of variability and complexity in ancient fishing practices and in interpretations of the archaeological record. Untangling these complex local histories will take continued integration across the sciences (ecology, biology, geology, archaeology), informed by ethnography and TEK. In doing so, we can take the necessary next steps to better understand the structure and function of ancient riverine systems, their dynamic relationship with human fishers, and the appropriate baselines for managing and restoring these critical resources.