Interactions across the North American Midcontinent

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Interactions across the North American Midcontinent" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The North American Midcontinent, from the eastern Great Plains to the Ohio River Valley, provides extensive evidence of interaction among and within past cultural groups, interconnected by the Mississippi River watershed, the Great Lakes, and overland trails. For thousands of years, travel and exchange routes facilitated movement of information, ideology, and material culture, supporting long-distance social and economic networks. The material record of the Midcontinent allows for multiscalar examinations of interactions spanning time and space. We interpret distributions of transported items as evidence of relationships amongst communities. Yet, boundaries of these archaeological cultures were more fluid or transitional than our organizational frameworks imply. While archaeologists often are forced to work within existing typologies, we recognize that boundaries were permeable and situational, with interactions regularly occurring among and across archaeologically defined groups. This session convenes scholars working across the Midcontinent to explore varied aspects of past interactions, which often fostered conflict, change, and innovation. By examining the nature and distribution of past material culture, we can better interpret the significance of motifs, styles, foodways, and other precontact material culture indicative of community association and (often) social change. Understanding such processes is critical in today’s world of increasing globalization and connectivity.