The Apalachee in a Cultural Borderlands: A Discussion of Hybridized Ceramic Practice in the 18th century

Summary

By the 18th century the Central Gulf Coast of North America was a complex of cultural borderlands, a result of constant Native American migrations and violent European power struggles. The Apalachee, a group of Floridian Indians, was one of many groups caught up in the rapid changes of culture contact. After the Spanish mission system inhabited by the Apalachee disintegrated, they dispersed across the Southeast, settling in small groups among other splintered Indian nations. As the Apalachee inhabited the borderlands of the Central Gulf Coast, their ceramic practice changed, influenced by cultural history, new geographic locations and changing social networks. This paper explores the nature of cultural evolution the Apalachee experienced through an examination of the ceramics they left behind in two 18th century communities along the Gulf Coast, as well as the ancestral Apalachee homeland of San Luis and the Creek trade town of Fusihatchee.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage