Population Aggregation and Ceramic Communities of Practice at 17th Century Mission Santa Catalina

Summary

Native made ceramics are, without question, the most abundant and intensively studied artifact type recovered at southeastern Spanish colonial mission sites. In the mission province of Guale, located on the northern Georgia coast, these ceramics consist of Irene and Altamaha series wares—primarily stamped and incised grit-tempered—related to the broader Lamar ceramics of the South Appalachian Mississippian region. Many studies have thoroughly established the broad contours and temporal patterns of these ceramics, examining stylistic changes over time and elucidating the colonial transformation from the Irene to the Altamaha ceramic series.

In this paper, rather than working from a framework in which I classify this pottery into either morphological or temporal types, I examine variation in individual ceramic attributes using a situated learning/communities of practice framework, exploring micro-scale patterns of social relationships within the Santa Catalina community. Working with a sample of ceramics recovered from five distinct neighborhoods within the Mission Santa Catalina pueblo, I identify distinct differences in the practices of ceramic production and consumption between these neighborhoods. I interpret these results in terms of the complicated patterns of population relocation and aggregation within the missions of La Florida.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage