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“A Continent of Villages”
North American Societies before 1500
The Resisted Revolution
Adoption of farming was a gradual process that took hundreds of years.
Not all Indian groups adopted agriculture. In some regions, climate combined with
abundant food sources and cultural values led to rejection of farming.
Foraging provided more varied diet, less influenced by climate, and required less work.
Favorable climate was pivotal to the adoption of farming.
Increasing Social Complexity
Farming stimulated increasing social complexity.
Families were grouped into clans that bound people together into a tribe.
Tribes were led by clan leaders of chiefs and advised by councils of elders.
Chiefs were responsible for collection, storage, and distribution of food.
Gender strictly divided labor. Marriage ties were generally weak. Growing populations required larger food
surpluses and led to war.
The Southwest
Aridity a central fact of life in the Southwest, though a number of rivers flow out of mountain plateaus.
Most peoples practiced dry farming or irrigated agriculture, living in villages.
Region home to Yuman, Pimas, Pueblos, and most recent arrivals, Athapascans, who developed into Navajos and Apaches.
Desert Culture
Desert Culture was way of life based on small game hunting and intensified foraging.
Foraging followed seasonal routes. Skills included:
producing fiber baskets for collecting; pitch-lined baskets for cooking; nets and traps; stone tools.
Desert Culture spread to Great Plains and Southwest.
Farmers of the Southwest
Farming began to emerge in the Southwest during the first millennium B.C.E.
The Mogollon: were first to practice agriculture, growing maize,
beans, and squash; lived in pit houses in permanent villages near
streams from about 250 B.C.E. to C.E. 1450
The Hohokam: grew maize, beans, squash, tobacco, and cotton; lived in villages in the floodplain of the Salt and Gila
Rivers between C.E. 300 to 1500; developed the first irrigation system in North
America north of Mexico; shared many traits with Mesoamerican civilization.
The Anasazis
Anasazi farming culture arose on plateau of Colorado River around present-day Four Corners area where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico meet.
The Anasazi: built densely populated, multistoried apartment
complexes clustered around kivas; grew high-yield maize in terraced fields irrigated
by canals; consisted of 25,000 communities that extended
over area larger than California; declined because of extended drought and
arrival of Athapascan migrants, leading to abandonment of Four Corners area.
The Northeast
Colder part of Eastern Woodlands with varied geography of coastal plains, mountain highlands, rivers, lakes, and valleys.
The Iroquois: lived in present-day Ontario and upstate New York; grew corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers; honored matrilineal family lineage centered around
longhouses; formed confederacy to eliminate warfare.
The Algonquians: comprised at least fifty distinct patrilineal cultures; were organized into bands with loose ethnic
affiliation in the north; farmed and lived in villages in the south.
Forest Efficiency
Eastern North America was a vast forest. Developed during Archaic period, "Forest
Efficiency" included: small game hunting; gathering seeds, nuts, roots, and other plants; burning woodlands and prairies to stimulate
growth of berries, fruits, and roots, creating meadows that provided food that attracted grazing animals for hunting;
fishing.
Farmers of the Eastern Woodlands
Farming led to development of Woodland culture in eastern North America about 3,000 years ago.
Woodland culture: combined gathering and hunting with farming,
eventually growing maize; developed a complex social structure.
Adena culture occupied Ohio River basin from before 1000 B.C.E. to about C.E. 250. They lived in villages and built large burial mounds.
The South
Mild climate with short winters and long summers proved ideal for farming.
Large populations lived in villages and towns, often ruled by chiefs.
Region home to Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creeks, and Cherokees.
Mississippian Society
Introduction of bow and arrow, development of new maize variety, and switch from digging-sticks to hoes were basis of Mississippian culture.
Mississippian culture: developed sophisticated maize farming; centered around permanent villages on
Mississippi River floodplain, with Cahokia as urban center;
built large effigy earthworks; had complex divisions of labor headed by elite
class of rulers; had urban centers linked by river
transportation system.
Cahokia
Cahokia
In the mid-1200s, Cahokia was an urban center of about 30,000 people.
They were sophisticated farmers and crafts workers who participated in long-distance trade.
The Cahokia residents had a strong religious tradition and built a series of mounds.
Occupation
This site was first inhabited by Indians of the Late Woodland culture about 700.
The site grew during the following Mississippian period, after 900, and by 1050-1150, the Cahokia site was the regional center for the Mississippian culture with many satellite communities, villages and farmsteads around it.
After 1200, the population began to decline and the site was abandoned by 1400.
Map of Cahokia
Mounds in America
Cahokia
Agriculture important to rise of Cahokia
Many of the foodstuffs used came from Central America – maize
Does not mean there was direct trade though – networks of trade
Maize
Required a large amount of water Cahokia had extensive irrigation
system to grow maize Irrigation projects means a
centralized government and likely social hierarchy
Cahokia Reconstruction
Additional Reconstruction
City Center
Site center is basically diamond shaped with an interior palisaded core 4.58 km east-west by 3.67 km north-south and 13.4
km2 120 mounds
City center: Monk's Mound plus 16 other mounds Basically shaped like a squat boat heading south Surrounded by a palisade on three sides (Cahokia
Creek defining the fourth side) Majority of mounds lie outside the palisaded inner
core One small mound yielded the burial of a high-ranking
individual buried with: Caches of arrow heads, Polished stone, Mica, Six sacrificed male retainers, A separate mass grave containing 53 women
Palisade
Excavations begun in 1966 uncovered a two-mile-long stockade surrounding the central portion of Cahokia.
The wall was started around 1100 and then rebuilt three times over a period of 200 years.
Each construction required 15,000-20,000 oak and hickory logs, one foot in diameter and twenty feet tall.
The logs were sunk into a trench four to five feet deep and were supported with horizontal poles or interwoven with saplings.
Reconstructed Palisade
“Woodhenge”
Evidence that there were as many as five Woodhenges.
These were built over a period of 200 years (900-1100).
Fragments of wood were identified as red cedar and used for the posts.
"Woodhenge“ Functions
Possible functions of "Woodhenge“: Observatory (?): May have functioned like
Stonehenge as a sort of "observatory" For astral and horizon alignment
observations. three posts are crucial as seasonal
markers -- those marking the first days of winter and summer (the solstices), and one halfway between marking the first days of spring and fall (the equinoxes).
Sun Dance "Temple" (?)
Woodhenge Reconstruction
Burial & Status: Cahokia Mound 72The wood dates to approximately 1000272 burials were discovered in mound 72.
Burials without litters
Mound 72
Burials with litters
Mound 72
Female Burial Pit (53 between 15 and 30)
Mound 72
Headless Burials
Reconstruction of “Chief” fromMound 72
Monk’s Mound
Largest monument at Cahokia is the famous Monk's Mound
Monk's Mound: About 100 feet high Covers sixteen acres (3 acres more than the great
pyramid at Giza!) (6.4 hectares) 316 by 241 meters (76156 square meters) rising
over 30 meters high Contains over 600,000 cubic meters of earth Constructed in stages This constitutes one of the largest examples of
prehistoric construction in the entire Western Hemisphere
Monk’s Mound
Another View
Cahokia Population
Between 1200 and 1300 was at its peak
Between 25,000 and 40,000 people If 40,000, it would be the largest
city in North America until surpassed by Philadelphia in 1800
Cahokia’s Downfall
Likely the result of ecological factors Depletion of lumber resources Ground became less fertile Diversion of a stream caused
flooding By 1400 was abandoned
Mississippian Collapse
Most Mississippian centers abandoned by 1500s, before contact with Europeans Reasons largely unknown.
Natchez and Coosa still around until decimated by European disease.
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