TRIBES AND CHIEFDOMS OF NORTH AMERICA
Time required: 3-4 hours
A. Overview: This module introduces the students to the prehistoric cultures of North America. At the beginning of class, a current events article is discussed, ideally addressing an archaeological issue from North America. If a student has brought in the article, they introduce it to the class; the instructor then encourages discussion of what has been learned by this article and what information may be lacking. In this module students will learn about the diversity of life in North America. The archaeological sites discussed include those from the Northwest coast, the Southwest, the Southeast, and the Midwest. The module examines the transition from the Archaic period to sedentism and regional specialization. As people settled down, their cultural features became unique to the region in which they settled. Students will discuss the impact of sedentism and agriculture on societies, including their own.
B. Lesson Objectives:
1. Identify the impacts of sedentism and agriculture on societies.
2. Describe culture areas and geographic layout, including time periods of areas covered in this section.
3. Describe the relationship of agriculture and surplus with the development of trade economies and how that is reflected in the archaeological record.
4. Identify different forms of trade and trade networks and how they affect social structure, specialization, alliances, etc.
5. Identify evidence for stratification, how it develops, and how it is identified in the archaeological record.
6. Describe key characteristics, including technology, economics, settlement patterns, social organization, ideology, and architecture.
7. Identify principles of stewardship, diverse interests, social relevance, ethics, communication, and real-world problem solving.
C. Matrix Principles:
1. Stewardship: what we can learn if we preserve the past (Cahokia, Chaco Canyon as examples of sites that have been preserved as parks and what we have learned through their preservation).
2. Diverse interests: relationship of Pueblo Indians to Chaco Canyon—past to present/descendant communities; also can discuss how surrounding modern-day communities benefit from stewardship (Farmington, New Mexico; St. Louis, MO, others).
3. Social relevance: comparison of stratification of societies in past to today—look at political alliances, economics (dependence on goods, etc.); need for hierarchical administrative structure to manage flow of goods and alliances—past and present.
4. Ethics: responsibility of archaeologists to descendant communities to convey information and respect native beliefs.
5. Communication: reflections, activities, Internet.
6. Real-world problem solving: issues of vandalism—how can it be curtailed; how to preserve archaeological sites.
D. Instructional Procedures: This module is primarily lecture and student activity. The current events portion is introduced to tie in archaeology to today's world. Ideally, the current events article will refer to an archaeological issue within North America. Throughout the lecture, students are asked questions to ensure they are grasping the concepts introduced. It is important to tie in real-world experiences to the content, so the questions ask the students to think of some of the concepts in the context of today's world (e.g., regional differences of urban areas in the United States). PowerPoint is useful to help identify concepts, but the lecture can be taught with traditional technology (whiteboard, etc.). Provide students with chronological data for each culture studied. Two activities are included in this module: vandalism and trade networks.
E. Assessment: Students are assessed on this topic by completing the reflections, activity, and class discussion.
F. Lecture Outline:
1. Current events: discuss recent new article on anthropology/archaeology. What did you learn from this article? What information do you still want to know? Are there any biases in the reporting?
2. Discuss Hopewell Interaction Sphere: time period; (map of Southeast with different culture areas as defined by archaeologists); Woodland culture; example of extensive trade network; archaeological evidence; social organization; collapse of trading system.
3. Cahokia: chronology; part of Mississippian period; example of chiefdom-level society; describe site and archaeological evidence; mortuary studies indicate stratification of society.
http://www.mactia.berkeley.edu/ls120/106_site/Cahokia_Main_Page/default.html4. Hohokam area: time periods; (map of Southwest with different culture areas as defined by archaeologists); canal system; architecture (platform mounds, ball courts, pithouses, adobe houses); trade networks; evidence for stratification, political complexity; collapse of structure of society.
5. Chaco Canyon: chronology; part of "Anasazi" culture area (map of Southwest with different culture areas as defined by archaeologists); describe architecture (village/great towns; kivas, etc); trade; artifacts; population estimates; roads; evidence for stratification; interpretations of data (ritual center, trade center, chiefdom, etc.)
G. Video/Slides: Secrets of Moundbuilders; 500 Nations video section on Cahokia and Chaco Canyon (Grossman et al. 1995); Pictures of Record slides of Moundbuilders, Southwest.
H. Readings: Price and Feinman: Hopewell, Cahokia, Moundville, Snaketown, Chaco Canyon; also pages 269, 280-281, 300-303.
A Different Look at the Mississippian Culture and Cahokia (Rank at Cahokia )(Effland and MCC 2004)
Greater Complexity: Chiefdoms (Effland and MCC 2004)
Ancient Architects of the Mississippi (NPS Archaeology and Ethnography Program 2004a)
Legacies of North American Prehistory (Effland and MCC 2004)
"Life Along the River," Ancient Architects of the Mississippi (NPS Archaeology and Ethnography Program 2004b)
"The Moundbuilders," Ancient Architects of the Mississippi (NPS Archaeology and Ethnography Program 2004c)
Cooperation and Competition: The American Southwest Model (Effland and MCC 2004)
Desert Farmers at the River's Edge: The Hohokam and Pueblo Grande (Andrews and Bostwick 2000)
Hohokam Indians of the Tucson Basin (Gregonis and Reinhard 1979)
I. Activity: Discussion of problems of vandalism at sites in the Americas: remind them of Slack Farms; possibly show Thieves of Time video (Hopfer 1992), which has a lot of Southwestern information; Have students read Stuart and McManamon (2004), Preserving the Past for the Future and discuss, in class, the relationship of past and present and problems of vandalism (stewardship: protection of archaeological sites, trafficking of goods; examples of parks and conservation [Cahokia, Chaco Canyon], what we learn by conserving).
J. Activity: Social Relevance, Real World Problem Solving, and Diverse Interests: comparison of evidence of stratification from the past to today; discussion of trade networks and how they impact societies (dependence on goods, impact on economics and lifestyles [oil and today's world is a good analogy]); how the creation of alliances can impact a society. Use modern day examples: China, Middle East (oil); how trade alliances influence policies. Need for administrative structure to coordinate trade, growth of population centers, specialization, etc. Have students develop examples and then compare to the prehistoric cultures they have studied.
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