Emerging identity and community in the Lamoine River Valley during the early Late Woodland period: Examining the Carter Creek site as a case study

This study attempts to understand how the Middle to Late Woodland period transition resulted in a dynamic and tumultuous early Late Woodland period (250-800 CE) in west-central Illinois and the surrounding regions. This period has long been defined for its drab material culture, but this study adds nuance to this period by looking at the emergence of identities, and the styles that express them, immediately following this transition. The focus of this study is at the Carter Creek site, located in the uplands adjacent to the LaMoine River Valley drainage, and is on the ceramic production techniques used there. I argue that Carter Creek, and other early Late Woodland circular or arcuate villages, were places at which the Middle to Late Woodland transition was directly felt through quotidian practices and interactions. These interactions resulted in a turbulent atmosphere defined by a lack of sameness across the wider region that is reflected in the overall heterogeneity of ceramic vessels during this period. To examine the emergences of identities and styles, I view this transitional period through the lens of assemblage theory, taking a relational approach that focuses on humans, spaces, places, and things, all at an equivalent level. In taking this approach, I recognize that identity (at multiple scales) and style emerge from the interactions between these people, places, spaces, and things, forming into real and affective assemblages that produce effects in the world. I use the analytical details of things to show how identities and styles assembled across this period, both geographically and temporally, at numerous sites, including Carter Creek, Gast Farm, Rosewood, White Bend, Sartorius, Sartorial Splendor, and Buffalo Chip. Through this examination, the territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization of past Middle Woodland and newly emergent Late Woodland identities can be traced. The sites used in this study span the entirety of the early Late Woodland period both in the LaMoine River Valley and in the surrounding regions. Each of these sites shows the unique ways that identities and styles territorialized during the upheaval of the Middle to Late Woodland transition, dependent on the contexts in which people lived. Carter Creek and Rosewood were places at which Middle Woodland identities and styles deterritorialized through active choices to move away from Middle Woodland practices and spaces, such as mounds. Gast Farm and White Bend were places at which the proximity of Middle Woodland spaces and things afforded for both a reterritorialization of Middle Woodland identities and styles, and a territorialization of newly emergent Late Woodland identities and styles. Buffalo Chip and Sartorius/Sartorial Splendor show the ways that the latter portion of the early Late Woodland period had calmed. In the immediate aftermath of the Middle to Late Woodland transition a tumultuous atmosphere emerged, but as this period progressed, this initial chaos subsided, and wider community identities were able to territorialize.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Sutherland, Adam

Contributors dc:contributor

• Fennell, Christopher C
• Lucero, Lisa J
• Ambrose, Stanley H
• Skousen, B. Jacob

• Early Late Woodland
• Identity
• Community
• Style
• Assemblage
• Weaver

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Adam Sutherland

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121962

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121962