University Press of Florida Rethinking Moundville and its Hinterland (Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P.Bullen Series)

About the Author Vincas P. Steponaitis, professor of anthropology and director of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA is coauthor of Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom.C. Margaret Scarry, professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA is editor of Foraging and Farming in the Eastern Woodlands. Product Description Moundville, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is one of the largest pre-Columbian mound sites in North America. Comprising twenty-nine earthen mounds that were once platforms for chiefly residences and temples, Moundville was a major political and religious center for the people living in its region and for the wider Mississippian world.A much-needed synthesis of the rapidly expanding archaeological work that has taken place in the region over the past two decades, this volume presents the results of multifaceted research and new excavations. Using models deeply rooted in local ethnohistory, it ties Moundville and its people more closely than before to the ethnography of native southerners and emphasizes the role of social memory and ritual practices both at the mound center and in the hinterland, providing an up-to-date and refreshingly nuanced interpretation of Mississippian culture.