Middens or Monuments? The Shell Middens of Maine and the Construction of Peace

Summary

Although some attention has been given to the possibility that circular, semi-circular, and U-shaped piles of shell in southeastern North America represent monumental architecture (e.g., Thompson and Pluckhahn 2012), little attention has been afforded to the possibility that large shell middens of the eastern North American coast might be monumental constructions. Here, using an argument drawn from New Guinea ethnography, we hypothesize that some Maine middens were not simply rubbish heaps, but conspicuous constructions that, among other things, maintained peace among neighboring aboriginal polities.

Behavioral ecologists theorize that, as honest signals of fighting strength, threat displays and ritualized fighting are information-gathering devices that allow both parties to a conflict to establish the victor without either having to risk the potentially catastrophic costs of serious fighting (Enquist and Leimar 1990). Analogously, we propose, some Maine shell middens were indexical signals of a polity’s fighting strength that helped maintain peace by mediating inter-polity conflict. As signals of consumption, scale of feasting, and available food resources, the middens broadcast the number of members and allies a polity could muster, as well as their commitment to its projects. The hypothesis gains support from the distribution of both middens and their contents.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20300