Intersecting Identities in Southeastern U.S. Prehistory

Summary

Archaeological evidence from the southeastern and mid-south regions of the U.S. suggest that dress, personal ornamentation, and body modification were key strategies for presenting the self during later prehistory. These markers were apparently deployed to designate multiple and intersecting aspects of identity, including gender, age, community affiliation, and leadership status. Evidence comes from recovered artifacts, human burials, and representational images of humans. Some archaeologists have also examined patterns of architecture, food preparation, and artifact manufacture for evidence of group and personal identity. Ethnographic evidence has also been influential in scholarly attempts to understand the variability of social and individual identity. It is a complex task to integrate both multiple sources of evidence and multiple aspects of identity and life course, without either over-simplifying nor throwing up one’s hands in despair at the complexity. This paper reviews research in the southeast with a focus on how gender identity intersects with other aspects of self-presentation.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• See How We Are: Representing Identity in the Ancient Americas

Keywords

Spatial Coverage