A nuanced understanding of the western Kentucky Green River Archaic requires reconciling the region’s rich archaeological record with the growing literature pertaining to how hunter-gatherers perceive their worlds. A dwelling perspective of the Green River Archaic involves interpreting the region’s large middens as components of animated lifeworlds saturated with meaning and composed of numerous constantly maintained relationships among people and between people and various other beings. This article explores how Green River Archaic hunter-gatherers constructed the middens through daily practices and periodic emotionally charged mortuary rites, thereby giving them meaning as persistent places and contributing to an ever-evolving, historically constituted landscape.
BaileyG (2007) Time perspectives, palimpsests and the archaeology of time. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology26: 198–223.
2.
BaileyG (2008) Time perspectivism: Origins and consequences. In: HoldawaySWandsniderL (eds) Time in Archaeology: Time Perspectivism Revisited. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, pp. 13–30.
3.
BellC (1997) Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
Bird-DavidN (1999) ‘Animism’ revisited: Personhood, environment, and relational epistemology. Current Anthropology40: S67–S91.
5.
BurdinSR (2004) Interaction, Exchange, and Social Organization among Hunter-gatherers in the Midcontinent – Evidence from the Lower Ohio River Valley: Bannerstone Use from 6500 to 3000 BP. MA thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky.
6.
CaldwellJR (1958) Trend and Tradition in the Prehistory of the Eastern United States. Springfield, AZ: American Anthropological Association.
7.
CarrC (2005) Rethinking interregional Hopewellian ‘interaction’. In: CarrCCaseDT (eds) Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction. New York: Kluwer Academic and Plenum Publishers, pp. 575–623.
8.
ClaassenC (1992) Shell mounds as burial mounds: A revision of the Shell Mound Archaic. In: PollackDHendersonAG (eds) Current Archaeological Research in Kentucky, Vol. 2. Frankfurt: Kentucky Heritage Council, pp. 1–11.
9.
ClaassenC (1996) A consideration of the social organization of the Shell Mound Archaic. In: SassamanKEAndersonDG (eds) Archaeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 235–258.
10.
ClaassenC (2010) Feasting with Shellfish in the Southern Ohio Valley: Archaic Sacred Sites and Rituals. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
11.
ClokePJonesO (2001) Dwelling, place, and landscape: An orchard in Somerset. Environment and Planning A33: 649–666.
12.
CrawfordGW (2005) Plant remains from Carlston Annis (1972, 1974), Bowles, and Peter Cave. In: MarquardtWHWatsonPJ (eds) Archaeology of the Middle Green River Region, Kentucky. Gainesville, FL: Institute of Archaeology and Paleoenvironmental Studies, pp. 181–212.
13.
CrothersGM (2005) Vertebrate fauna from the Carlston Annis site. In: MarquardtWHWatsonPJ (eds) Archaeology of the Middle Green River Region, Kentucky. Gainesville, FL: Institute of Archaeology and Paleoenvironmental Studies, pp. 295–314.
14.
DragooDW (1976) Some aspects of eastern North American prehistory: A review 1975. American Antiquity41(1): 3–27.
15.
EmersonTEMcElrathDL (2001) Interpreting discontinuity and historical process in Midcontinental Late Archaic and Early Woodland societies. In: PauketatTR (ed.) The Archaeology of Traditions: Agency and History before and after Columbus. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 195–217.
16.
FogelinL (2007) Inference to the best explanation: A common and effective form of archaeological reasoning. American Antiquity72(4): 603–625.
17.
FordJAWilleyGR (1941) An interpretation of the prehistory of the Eastern United States. American Anthropologist43(3): 325–363.
18.
FortierAC (2001) A tradition of discontinuity: American Bottom Early and Middle Woodland culture history reexamined. In: PauketatTR (ed.) The Archaeology of Traditions: Agency and History before and after Columbus. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 174–194.
19.
GardnerPS (1997) The ecological structure and behavioral implications of mast exploitation strategies. In: GremillionKJ (ed.) People, Plants, and Landscapes Studies in Paleoethnobotany. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, pp. 161–178.
20.
GatusTW (2005) A preliminary reconnaissance of some west-central Kentucky chert resources. In: MarquardtWHWatsonPJ (eds) Archaeology of the Middle Green River Region, Kentucky. Gainesville, FL: Institute of Archaeology and Paleoenvironmental Studies, pp. 431–451.
21.
GosdenC (1999) Anthropology and Archaeology: A Changing Relationship. London: Routledge.
HensleyCK (1991) The middle Green River shell mounds: Challenging traditional interpretations using internal site structure analysis. In: StoutCHensleyCK (eds) The Human Landscape in Kentucky’s Past: Site Structure and Settlement Patterns. Frankfurt: Kentucky Heritage Council, pp. 78–97.
24.
HornborgA (2006) Animism, fetishism, and objectivism as strategies for knowing (or not knowing) the world. Ethnos71(1): 21–32.
25.
IngoldT (2000) The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. London: Routledge.
26.
IngoldT (2006) Rethinking the animate, re-animating thought. Ethnos71(1): 9–20.
27.
IsonCRSharpWE (2004) Prehistoric fire activity and forest structure along the Cumberland Plateau. In: HockensmithCDCarstensKC (eds) Current Archaeological Research in Kentucky, Vol. 7. Frankfurt: Kentucky Heritage Council, pp. 55–68.
28.
JefferiesRW (1997) Middle Archaic bone pins: Evidence of Mid-Holocene regional-scale social groups in the Southern Midwest. American Antiquity62(3): 464–487.
29.
JefferiesRW (2004) Regional-scale interaction networks and the emergence of cultural complexity along the northern margins of the Southeast. In: GibsonJLCarrPJ (eds) Signs of Power: The Rise of Cultural Complexity in the Southeast. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, pp. 71–85.
30.
JefferiesRW (2008a) Holocene Hunter-Gatherers of the Lower Ohio River Valley. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
31.
JefferiesRW (2008b) The Archaic period. In: PollackD (ed.) The Archaeology of Kentucky: An Update. Frankfurt: Kentucky Heritage Council, pp. 193–338.
32.
JefferiesRWThompsonVDMilnerGR (2005) Archaic hunter-gatherer landscape use in west-central Kentucky. Journal of Field Archaeology30(1): 3–23.
33.
LightfootKG (2001) Traditions as cultural production: Implications for contemporary archaeological research. In: PauketatTR (ed.) The Archaeology of Traditions: Agency and History before and after Columbus. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 237–252.
34.
LittletonJAllenH (2007) Hunter-gatherer burials and the creation of persistent places in Southern Australia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology26: 283–298.
35.
LoseyR (2010) Animism as a means of exploring archaeological fishing structures on Willapa Bay, Washington, USA. Cambridge Archaeological Journal20(1): 17–32.
36.
MacDonaldDH (2001) Grief and burial in the American Southwest: The role of evolutionary theory in the interpretation of mortuary remains. American Antiquity66(4): 704–714.
37.
McElrathDLFortierACKoldehoffBEmersonTE (2009) The American Bottom: An Archaic cultural crossroads. In: EmersonTEMcElrathDLFortierA (eds) Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity across the Midcontinent. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 317–376.
38.
MarquardtWH (2010) Shell mounds in the southeast: Middens, monuments, temple mounds, rings, or works?. American Antiquity75(3): 551–570.
39.
MarquardtWHWatsonPJ (2005) The Green River Shell Mound Archaic: Conclusions. In: MarquardtWHWatsonPJ (eds) Archaeology of the Middle Green River Region, Kentucky. Gainesville, FL: Institute of Archaeology and Paleoenvironmental Studies, pp. 629–647.
40.
MensforthRP (2001) Warfare and trophy taking in the Archaic period. In: PruferOHPeddeSEMeindlRS (eds) Archaic Transitions in Ohio and Kentucky Prehistory. Kent: Kent State University Press, pp. 110–138.
41.
MillsBJ (2004) The establishment and defeat of hierarchy: Inalienable possessions and the history of collective prestige structures in the Pueblo Southwest. American Anthropologist106(2): 238–251.
42.
MilnerGRJefferiesRW (1998) The Read Archaic shell midden in Kentucky. Southeastern Archaeology17(2): 119–132.
43.
MooreCR (2009) Paleoamerican utilization of the Green River shell middens: The Chiggerville site (15OH1) Kentucky. Current Research in the Pleistocene26: 91–92.
44.
MooreCR (2010) A macroscopic investigation of technological style and the production of Middle to Late Archaic fishhooks at the Chiggerville, Read, and Baker sites, Western Kentucky. Southeastern Archaeology29(1): 197–221.
45.
MooreCR (2011) Production, Exchange and Social Interaction in the Green River Region of Western Kentucky: A Multiscalar Approach to the Analysis of Two Shell Midden Sites. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky.
46.
MooreCRDekleVG (2010) Hickory nuts, bulk processing, and the advent of early horticultural economies in eastern North America. World Archaeology42(4): 595–608.
47.
MoreyDFCrothersGM (1998) Clearing up clouded waters: Palaeoenvironmental analysis of freshwater mussel assemblages from the Green River shell middens, Western Kentucky. Journal of Archaeological Science25: 907–926.
48.
MoreyDFCrothersGMSteinJKFentonJPHerrmannNP (2002) The fluvial and geomorphic context of Indian Knoll, an Archaic shell midden in west-central Kentucky. Geoarchaeology17(6): 521–553.
49.
PauketatTR (2001a) A new tradition in archaeology. In: PauketatTR (ed.) The Archaeology of Traditions: Agency and History before and after Columbus. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 1–16.
50.
PauketatTR (2001b) Practice and history in archaeology: An emerging paradigm. Anthropological Theory1(1): 73–98.
51.
RolingsonMA (1967) Temporal Perspectives on the Archaic Cultures of the Middle Green River Region, Kentucky. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan.
52.
SassamanKE (2010) The Eastern Archaic, Historicized. Lanham MD: AltaMira Press.
53.
SassamanKE (2011) History and alterity in the eastern Archaic. In: SassamanKEHollyD (eds) Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology as Historical Process. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 187–208.
54.
SassamanKEHollyDHJr (2011) Transformative hunter-gatherer archaeology in North America. In: SassamanKEHollyD (eds) Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology as Historical Process. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 1–16.
55.
SchifferMB (2005) The devil is in the details: The cascade model of invention processes. American Antiquity70(3): 485–502.
56.
SchlangerSH (1992) Recognizing persistent places in Anasazi settlement systems. In: RossignolJWandsniderL (eds) Space, Time, and Archaeological Landscapes. New York: Plenum Press, pp. 91–112.
57.
SimonML (2009) A regional and chronological synthesis of Archaic period plant use in the Midcontinent. In: EmersonTEMcElrathDLFortierAC (eds) Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity across the Midcontinent. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 81–114.
58.
SmithBD (1986) The archaeology of the Southeastern United States: From Dalton to de Soto, 10,500–500 BP. In: WendorfFCloseA (eds) Advances in World Archaeology, Vol. 5. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, pp. 1–92.
59.
StrathernM (1988) The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia. Berkeley: University of California Press.
60.
StylesBWKlippelWE (1996) Mid-Holocene faunal exploitation in the Southeastern United States. In: SassamanKEAndersonDG (eds) Archaeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 115–133.
61.
ThompsonVD (2010) The rhythms of space-time and the making of monuments and places during the Archaic. In: ThomasDHSangerMD (eds) Trend, Tradition, and Turmoil: What Happened to the Southeastern Archaic?. New York: American Museum of Natural History, pp. 217–228.
62.
ThompsonVDAndrusCFT (2011) Evaluating mobility, monumentality, and feasting at the Sapelo shell ring complex. American Antiquity76(2): 315–344.
63.
WatsonPJ (2005) WPA excavations in the middle Green River area: A comparative account. In: MarquardtWHWatsonPJ (eds) Archaeology of the Middle Green River Region, Kentucky. Gainesville, FL: Institute of Archaeology and Paleoenvironmental Studies, pp. 515–628.
64.
WebbWS (1974) Indian Knoll. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
65.
WebbWSHaagWG (1939) The Chiggerville Site, Site 1, Ohio County, Kentucky. Lexington: University of Kentucky.
66.
WebbWSHaagWG (1947) Archaic Sites in McLean County, Kentucky. Lexington: University of Kentucky.
67.
WeinerAB (1992) Inalienable Possessions: The Paradox of Keeping-While-Giving. Berkeley: University of California Press.
