Michael S. Nassaney

The adoption of the bow and arrow in Eastern North America: A view from Central Arkansas

North American archaeologists have long been interested in distinguishing between dart and arrow points in order to establish when bow-and-arrow technology was adopted in the Eastern Woodlands. A quantitative analysis of pointform and qualitative reconstructions of bifacial reduction trajectories fiom Plum Bayou culture sites in central Arkansas indicate that arrow points were abruptly adopted and became widespread about A. D. 600. Moreover, arrow points are metrically discrete entities that were not developed through gradual modification of dart points in this region as appears to be the case elsewhere. Comparisons with patterns observed in other regions of the East show significant variation in the timing, rate, and direction of the adoption of the bow and arrow, as well as the role of this technological change in Native American economies and sociopolitics. These observations suggest that the bow and arrow were. (1) introduced significantly earlier than some researchers have posited; (2) independently invented by some groups and diffused to others; and (3) relinquished and later readopted in some areas of the Eastern Woodlands in response to changing social, historical, and environmental conditions. Our data also call into question simple unilinear or diffusionary models that claim to explain the development and spread of this technological innovation.

Class, gender, and the built environment: Deriving social relations from cultural landscapes in Southwest Michigan

The houses, barns, and gardens that comprise cultural landscapes embody information about their makers because the built environment actively serves to create, reproduce, and transform social relations. Members of society use space to reinforce and resist relations of power, authority, and inequality by organizing the landscape to facilitate the activities and movements of some individuals, while concurrently constraining others. Historical investigations indicate that the occupants of the village of Plainwell, Michigan, have witnessed political, economic, and social changes at the local, regional, and national levels since the mid-19th century. Yet, archaeological investigation of the Woodhams site (20AE852)—a residential homelot in Plainwell—provides evidence for considerable continuity in class and gender relations, despite transformations in American society at these multiple scales of analysis.

The Southwest Michigan Historic Landscape Project: Exploring Class, Gender, and Ethnicity from the Ground Up

The Southwest Michigan Historic Landscape Project was initiated in 1994 to examine how the cultural landscapes and associated material culture of the region became transformed since the pioneer settlement of the early 19th century (ca. 1830s). Thus far we have used various methods to investigate four sites in Allegan, Calhoun, and Jackson counties at varying levels of intensity. From these initial efforts we have begun to compile comparative information on the built environment. Here we present the theory and methods used in the project and discuss how class, gender, and ethnic identities are expressed in the material record of the region.

The materiality of individuality at Fort St. Joseph: An eighteenth-century mission-garrison-trading post complex on the edge of empire

Anthropological archaeologists have long recognized that material remains can inform on various scales of human activity as well as the identities of the people who lived in the past (Brumfiel, 1992; Diaz-Andreu et al., 2005; Hodder, 1986; Marquardt, 1992; Wobst, 1977). Many conceive of the archaeological record as a multivalent text – both a product of and precedent for human action – that individuals as members of groups use to create, reproduce, and transform their social relations. This perspective marks a shift in focus from culture to society and its constituent parts (Hodder, 2004:23–29). Early acknowledgement of the multidimensionality of artifacts based on their technomic, sociotechnic, and ideotechnic functions by processual archaeologists came in tandem with the recognition that social groups are not homogeneous cultural entities but consist of individuals with specific interests based on their age, status, gender, ethnicity, and a multitude of intersections among these axes (Binford, 1962, 1965). Yet the dominance of systems theory thinking deflected attention away from the individual as the locus of analysis and thwarted methodological attempts to illuminate social identity (but see Hill and Gunn, 1977). More recent concern with the implications of social diversity has led investigators of the past to probe the archaeological record with full awareness that it embodies the dreams, aspirations, motivations, perceptions, and realities of individual agents whose actions were admittedly constrained by structures they often took for granted (Brumfiel, 1992; Dobres and Robb, 2000).

Suffering for Jesus: Penitential Practices at Fort St. Joseph (Niles, Michigan) During the French Regime

Scholarship on New France often emphasizes the factors that motivated the establishment of the colony, including the desire to promulgate the spread of Catholicism to Native peoples. However, the place of religion in the lives of the French inhabitants in the far-flung outposts in the North American interior is difficult to assess. Recent excavations at Fort St. Joseph, an eighteenth-century mission-garrison-trading post complex in the western Great Lakes, uncovered an unusual religious artifact tentatively identified as a cilice, an instrument of self-mortification used by the devout for a variety of penitential purposes. The authors seek to verify that identification, describe the various uses of the cilice in Catholic penitential practice, and draw some tentative conclusions about what the use of a cilice suggests about religious life at the fort on the edge of the French empire. Depending on who might have used it, the cilice reflects an enduring and vibrant French Catholic faith on the frontier, or the adoption by Native peoples of that same faith.

The Role of Chipped Stone in the Political Economy of Social Ranking

Chipped stone tools can figure prominently in the political economy of social ranking and the transformation of social relationships. For instance, incipient elites may try to aggrandize themselves by controlling access to lithic resources or the organization of tool production. In this paper I examine three aspects of stone tool technology—raw material acquisition, labor allocation, and productive intensification—to explore how lithic artifacts were implicated in the integration and disintegration of Plum Bayou culture in central Arkansas (ca. A.D. 700–950). The analyses expose longitudinal changes in the organization of technology which suggest rudimentary attempts at control and/or intensification. Despite these efforts, socially ranked individuals apparently failed to monopolize raw materials or the production process.

Archaeological evidence of economic activities at an eighteenth-century frontier outpost in the western Great Lakes

During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, antiquarian collectors amassed hundreds of artifacts from the vicinity of Fort St. Joseph (20BE23), a mission-garrison-trading post complex established by the French in the late-17th century along the St. Joseph River in southwest Michigan. George Quimby (1939, 1966) later used these materials to establish a chronology for post-contact Native American sites in the western Great Lakes region, although the research potential of the collections was limited by their lack of provenience. Subsequent fieldwork conducted in 2002 and 2004 by Western Michigan University located intact deposits from this site. Excavations have identified a number of cultural features and associated archaeological materials that suggest the locations of buildings and discrete activity areas. The undisturbed deposits encountered at the site of Fort St. Joseph can inform researchers about everyday economic activities at an important trading post in the North American interior.

The Identification of Colonial Fort St. Joseph, Michigan

Abstract The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project was initiated in 1998 to identify, investigate, and interpret material evidence of Fort St. Joseph, a mission-garrison-trading post complex of the 18th century in SW Michigan. An initial survey identified a deposit of 18th-century French and English artifacts associated with a large assemblage of well-preserved animal bones. We returned in 2002 and employed a well-point drainage system followed by a geophysical survey to assist in locating and documenting cultural deposits, features, and architectural remains in stratigraphic context. This report documents the effectiveness of our field methods and presents our preliminary excavation results that clearly demonstrate the presence of undisturbed archaeological remains associated with the occupation of Fort St. Joseph.

The Role of the Public in Public Archaeology: Ten Years of Outreach and Collaboration at Fort St. Joseph

Abstract Public outreach and community involvement are increasingly common aspects of archaeology, developed to ensure relevancy, support of the discipline, and inclusivity in archaeological interpretations. The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project (FSJAP) is an example of how active community participation promotes a symbiotic relationship: community members offer knowledge and logistical assistance while professional archaeologists from Western Michigan University provide expertise and institutional support. Forums including training camps, Open House events, social media sites, and public appearances create opportunities for non-specialists to share their knowledge, contributing to the empowerment of the community. While the FSJAP has experienced considerable success in making the past accessible to a broad public, differing visions have sometimes surfaced between archaeologists and non-academic stakeholders. In this paper we present a critical examination of the project’s origins, growth, and challenges that all agents have experienced in their efforts to realize their hopes for the project.