Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Herrmann, Nicholas P.

Committee Member

Peacock, Evan

Committee Member

Rafferty, Janet E.

Date of Degree

8-17-2013

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Applied Anthropology

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures

Abstract

Remains from twentyour human burials recovered from the Bluff Creek Site (1LU59) in Alabama exhibited evidence of interpersonal conflict trauma. When the victims of interpersonal conflict were placed in their approximate time period, it became apparent that frequencies of interpersonal conflict changed over time, from the Archaic (15.4%) to Woodland (6.7%) to Mississippian (45.5%) periods. These changes are explained by changes in settlement patterns and associated stress over resource competition. As Archaic hunter-gatherers became less mobile and settled in to small “hamlets”, the stress over competition for resources was reduced, causing the frequency of interpersonal conflict trauma to fall slightly in the Woodland period. The significant rise in the frequency for the Mississippian is related to the shift in settlement patterns from “hamlets” to large villages. As the large villages began to compete for resource territory, stress over competition for resources also increased.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20242

Comments

trauma||settlement patterns

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