Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
8-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Anthropology
Major Professor
Barbara Heath
Committee Members
David Anderson, Aleydis Van De Mortell, Ellen Lofaro
Abstract
This dissertation examines how hunter-gathers used human-animal relationships to shape Archaic society at shell mound and shell bearing sites in the lower Tennessee River Valley circa 8900 cal yr B.P. to 3200 cal yr B.P. Research suggests that Middle and Late Archaic hunter-gathers used shell mound sites as places to organize their social and cultural organizations as well as places for cultural renewal and cultural continuity. While these investigations link social organization (for example tribes, corporate groups, ritually complex groups) with site type, burial patterns, artifact types, and shell mound construction, very little effort has been afforded to understanding Archaic lifeways through their relationships with wild and domesticated animals.
Human-animal relationships provide another line of evidence to interpret shell mound and shell bearing sites. This dissertation uses the concept of Animal Bone Grouping (ABG) to go beyond subsistence patterns and to historize and socialize Archaic hunter-gather lifeways through their relationships with animals.
New radiocarbon dating by Bissett (2014) now makes available a temporal context for exploring the connections between Archaic human-animal relationships and Archaic social organizations. This research used ABGs to examine how hunter gathers utilized the domesticated dog, the introduction of food taboos, changes in feasting patterns, changes in gender roles and changes in meat provisioning at shell mound sites to affect changes in social organization through the Middle and Late Archaic periods.
Archaeologists are developing excellent cases studies of specific shell mound cultures to re-interpret Archaic hunter gather social organization and social change. The dissertation research shows that Archaic hunter-gathers employed different human-animal relationships at different times in the lower Tennessee River Valley. Evidence in the form of articulated dog ABGs and disarticulated mammal ABGs indicate that hunter-gathers used transegalitarian organizations at the Big Sandy and Eva sites circa 8900–8200 cal yr B. P., that shifted to more egalitarian organizations circa 8200–6300 cal yr B.P. that was centered on ceremonial use of human-animal relationships. By the late Middle Archaic period into the Late Archaic period, circa 5600– 3200 cal yr B.P., hunter-gathers practiced a transegalitarian social structure.
Recommended Citation
Brown, James E., "SOCIALIZING THE SHELL MOUND ARCHAIC:CHANGES IN HUMAN-ANIMAL RELATIONSHIPS DURING THE MIDDLE AMD LATE ARCHAIC PERIODS IN THE UPPER TENNESSEE RIVER VALLEY. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2025.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/12651