From Households to Communities and Back Again: Bridging Analytical Scales in Search of Conflict, Coalescence, and Communitas

Summary

Archaeological examinations of households and communities have increased dramatically over the past decade. These studies explore the ways people define themselves while simultaneously shaping the social interactions, physical spaces, and material objects that comprise their daily existence. Despite the considerable insights generated by such studies, it is often difficult to bridge analytical scales when research is primarily focused at either the household or community level, with little to integrate these scales of investigation. We must acknowledge that communities are neither merely the byproducts of actions undertaken by individual households, nor are households simply passive reflections of the communities of which they are a part. This paper examines the difficulties we face when bridging these scales of analysis in the Mississippian Southeast, suggesting that we require new theoretical perspectives to more adequately understand the relationships between households and communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Reconsidering Mississippian Households and Communities

Keywords

Spatial Coverage