Culture Contact and Subsistence Change at Fusihatchee (1EE191)

Summary

Archaeological evidence from Colonial period Native American sites in southeastern North America document dramatic changes in many aspects of Native American life. In contrast, studies of zooarchaeological remains from the Colonial period indicate that subsistence systems changed very little in spite of the introduction of domestic animals. However, few zooarchaeological assemblages from sites with both precolonial and colonial occupations have been studied. The pre-Creek and Creek site of Fusihatchee (1EE191) is located on the Tallapoosa River in Alabama, and has both precolonial and colonial period occupations. Analysis of Late Woodland (A.D. 1050-1250) remains from Fusihatchee demonstrates that precolonial subsistence was characterized by emphasis on deer, wild mammals, wild birds, and turtles. Faunal remains from the colonial period Protohistoric (A.D. 1600-1717) occupation indicate an increase in the contribution of deer and document the presence of Eurasian domestic taxa. The Historic (A.D. 1717-1814) component indicates a further increase in deer usage and the continued presence of domestic animals in low numbers. The Late Historic (A.D. 1814-1836) assemblage is characterized by an equal reliance on both hunting and animal husbandry. Until the Late Historic occupation, three hundred years after European colonization, domestic animals contributed little to the subsistence strategy of the Creeks at Fusihatchee. The increase in the representation of deer and the presence of skinning marks on deer elements, as well as the shift in the representation of deer skeletal portion frequencies toward lower-utility foot elements are evidence for the intensification of the Creek's involvement in the deerskin trade. It is likely that the intensification of the deerskin trade and the problems associated with animal husbandry discouraged the Creek from adopting animal husbandry as a subsistence strategy until the collapse of the deerskin trade in the late eighteenth century. The world-system perspective is useful for explaining the observed changes in the zooarchaeological assemblages from Fusihatchee. The Creeks became a periphery in the expanding world economic system through their production of deerskins for the leather industries of the European economic core.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Pavao-Zuckerman Zooarchaeological Data

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 1050 to 1250 (Late Woodland)

Calendar Date: 1814 to 1836 (Late Historic)

Calendar Date: 1717 to 1814 (Historic)

Calendar Date: 1600 to 1717 (Colonial/Protohistoric)

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman

Notes

General Note: The Pavao-Zuckerman 2001 Dissertation, "Culture Contact and Subsistence Change at Fusihatchee" is the result of further analysis of the faunal data reported earlier in Pavao-Zuckerman 2000 and the reports from Pavao, Weinard, and Reitz 1999 and Reitz 1997. A 2007 American Antiquity article "Deerskins & Domesticates" by Pavao-Zuckerman is based on this dissertation.

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