Oneota Cultural Interaction in the Prairie Peninsula: A Study of Ceramic Vessels and Faunal Exploitation in Northern Illinois

This study refutes the established belief that Oneota culture was dominated by a Cahokia ideology or the ability of Cahokia chiefly lords or Oneota male elite to exert control over populations. Instead, power is examined in its ambiguity and heterogeneity. Using ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological data, all men and women in small-scale Native societies of the Prairie Peninsula bioregion and its environs are shown to share power constrained by tradition and obtained through visions. Dreams provide inspiration to create imagery in artwork and ritual that reflects their cosmology and ideology. Native cosmology in the Prairie Peninsula is one of ancient tradition as expressed in the content of various artistic media concerning the supernatural power of the upperworld, the Thunderbird, and thus not directly related to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex and a presumed Cahokia connection.

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

2015

Author dc:creator

• Berres, Thomas Edward

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brewer, Douglas J.

• Anthropology, Cultural

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9834653

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85315