Where is the Southeastern Native American economy?

ABSTRACT

Economics – the socially instituted ways of managing how people value, make, exchange, and consume goods – is a major part of human culture. Yet there is comparatively little study of the economies of the pre-sixteenth-century Southeast, in spite of revealing written comments by the earliest European observers and the fact that cross-culturally in societies of comparable scale, multiple, complicated economic institutions always play a central role. Because of the Southeast’s rich environment and well-preserved material record of human culture spanning over 14,000 years, archaeology here could be contributing much more data and new theory to economic anthropology generally. As examples of this potential, we draw on existing archaeological information indicating (1) that chert in the Cahokia region was most likely obtained through market mechanisms, and (2) that ever since their origins, plazas were designed consistent with facilitating and managing exchange. We sketch two models (Market Fair and Formal Market) that may be useful for studying economic evolution. We suggest additional, practicable research questions to further our understanding of Southeastern economic structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Economic anthropology
• marketplaces
• trade fairs
• economic institutions
• craft specialization
• property
• Cahokia

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Charlie Cobb, Philip Carr, and one anonymous reviewer for their comments and critique of this paper. We would like to extend thanks to the Historic and Cultural Preservation Department of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, especially RaeLynn Butler, for commenting on this manuscript. Part of the impetus for this work was when Thompson was interviewed by Sterling J. Cosper in January of 2018 for Mvskoke Media. We thank him for sparking an two year discussion between us that resulted in this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Stephen A. Kowalewski is Professor emeritus, Laboratory of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia. He has research interests in regional archaeological survey, human ecology, economic anthropology, and political economy. He has done field work in Mesoamerica and Southwestern and Southeastern North America.

Victor D. Thompson is Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Laboratory of Archaeology at the University of Georgia. His primary interests are in the Native American societies that occupied the coastal and wetland areas of the American Southeast. He has done field work in Mesoamerica, Southeastern North America, the Caribbean, and Europe.

Data availability statement

All data is available from published sources referenced herein.

Notes

1 Charles Cobb points out that the Cahokia regional trend may be “part of a much larger pattern that extends to villages and farmsteads across the Lower Midwest and adjoining Midsouth” (personal communication 2020).