Mississippian society had a hierarchical structure of capital distribution and leadership. The construction of ceremonial space in the Mississippian built environment was used in the production and maintenance of inequality, and was constructed at multiple scales that reflected Mississippian ideology. The repetitive structure constructed across the landscape reinforced the Mississippian religious idea of inequality of space. Elites benefited from the inequality of space by maintaining control over the symbolically important spaces that allowed elites to control access not only to sacred spaces but also to knowledge. Access to sacred space and knowledge were two means of producing symbolic capital. By limiting access to symbolic capital to an elite minority, elites maintained the symbolic power needed to rule the community by consent. In this thesis I examine two Mississippian towns to demonstrate how the construction of ceremonial space was used in the production and maintenance of inequality.
","abstract_html":"<p>Mississippian society had a hierarchical structure of capital distribution and leadership. The construction of ceremonial space in the Mississippian built environment was used in the production and maintenance of inequality, and was constructed at multiple scales that reflected Mississippian ideology. The repetitive structure constructed across the landscape reinforced the Mississippian religious idea of inequality of space. Elites benefited from the inequality of space by maintaining control over the symbolically important spaces that allowed elites to control access not only to sacred spaces but also to knowledge. Access to sacred space and knowledge were two means of producing symbolic capital. By limiting access to symbolic capital to an elite minority, elites maintained the symbolic power needed to rule the community by consent. In this thesis I examine two Mississippian towns to demonstrate how the construction of ceremonial space was used in the production and maintenance of inequality.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Thornock, Christopher Louis"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MA","degree_level":"Campus Access Thesis","degree_discipline":"Anthropology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Gail E. Wagner"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2009,"date_issued":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:36:43Z","subjects":["Anthropology","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Archaeology","Architecture","Mississippian","Power"],"languages":[],"rights":["© 2009, Christopher Louis Thornock"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/102","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Gail E. Wagner"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Thornock, Christopher Louis"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Anthropology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Campus Access Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MA"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Anthropology","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Archaeology","Architecture","Mississippian","Power"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© 2009, Christopher Louis Thornock"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/102"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Mississippian society had a hierarchical structure of capital distribution and leadership. The construction of ceremonial space in the Mississippian built environment was used in the production and maintenance of inequality, and was constructed at multiple scales that reflected Mississippian ideology. The repetitive structure constructed across the landscape reinforced the Mississippian religious idea of inequality of space. Elites benefited from the inequality of space by maintaining control over the symbolically important spaces that allowed elites to control access not only to sacred spaces but also to knowledge. Access to sacred space and knowledge were two means of producing symbolic capital. By limiting access to symbolic capital to an elite minority, elites maintained the symbolic power needed to rule the community by consent. In this thesis I examine two Mississippian towns to demonstrate how the construction of ceremonial space was used in the production and maintenance of inequality.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["An Analysis of Architecture and Power in the Ceremonial Centers of the South Appalachian Mississippian Built Environment"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Gail E. Wagner"],"dc:creator":["Thornock, Christopher Louis"],"dc:description.abstract":["Mississippian society had a hierarchical structure of capital distribution and leadership. The construction of ceremonial space in the Mississippian built environment was used in the production and maintenance of inequality, and was constructed at multiple scales that reflected Mississippian ideology. The repetitive structure constructed across the landscape reinforced the Mississippian religious idea of inequality of space. Elites benefited from the inequality of space by maintaining control over the symbolically important spaces that allowed elites to control access not only to sacred spaces but also to knowledge. Access to sacred space and knowledge were two means of producing symbolic capital. By limiting access to symbolic capital to an elite minority, elites maintained the symbolic power needed to rule the community by consent. In this thesis I examine two Mississippian towns to demonstrate how the construction of ceremonial space was used in the production and maintenance of inequality.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/102"],"dc:rights":["© 2009, Christopher Louis Thornock"],"dc:subject":["Anthropology","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Archaeology","Architecture","Mississippian","Power"],"dc:title":["An Analysis of Architecture and Power in the Ceremonial Centers of the South Appalachian Mississippian Built Environment"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Anthropology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Campus Access Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["MA"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:36:43Z"}