Sorting through Strata: Placemaking at Mormon-Era Nauvoo

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Method, Theory, and History in the Mississippian World: Papers in Honor of Timothy R. Pauketat" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

One of Timothy Pauketat’s many contributions to the field of archaeology is his incorporation of theory into his work. For Tim, theory is not a thing, but the way one sees and approaches the world and actively generates unique narratives and histories in correspondence with archaeological data; thus, all worthwhile questions regarding human history are inherently theoretical. Tim taught and encouraged both his students and colleagues to embrace theory and to always recognize its primacy in reconstructions of the past. In this vein, I draw on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, two of Tim’s favorite theorists, to think about placemaking at Nauvoo, Illinois. Specifically, I adopt Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “strata” to consider how perceptions, ideas, objects, and landscapes intertwined to create the 1840s Mormon city at Nauvoo. I contend that then-prevalent Mormon perceptions of Native American ancestry, their interest in ancient Midwestern indigenous groups, and the presence of Native American sites and artifacts buried within the strata of Nauvoo itself together created an aura of mystique that helped make Nauvoo a meaningful place to its Mormon residents.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Method, Theory, and History in the Mississippian World: Papers in Honor of Timothy R. Pauketat

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50924