Cahokia and the archaeology of power /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Emerson, Thomas E., 1945-
Imprint:Tuscaloosa, Ala. : University of Alabama Press, ©1997.
Description:1 online resource (xv, 317 pages) : illustrations, maps
Language:English
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11106525
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:0585184127
9780585184128
9780817308889
0817308881
9780817383657
0817383654
0817308881
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-306) and index.
Print version record.
Other form:Print version: Emerson, Thomas E., 1945- Cahokia and the archaeology of power. Tuscaloosa, Ala. : University of Alabama Press, ©1997 0817308881
Review by Choice Review

Based on seasons of careful excavation at multiple sites, Emerson's regional synthesis assesses the spectacular 11th through 13th-century archaeological site of Cahokia (East St. Louis, Illinois) from the perspective of its rural affiliate communities. Emerson studies the centralization of Cahokia political and ideological power by examining shorter-term sites that offer sequential snapshots of the "Cahokia process." Emerson's theoretical approach combines both materialist and ideological perspectives; it situates the study of prehistoric ideas in the obvious contexts of landscape and production. The differential distributions of materials reflect the unequal social positions occupied by elites and commoners of rural Cahokia society. The author's goal is a new understanding of the "political and ideological mechanisms that articulated the greater Cahokian polity," and a reconstructed image of 11th through 13th-century religious cosmology based on archaeological data, ethnohistory, ethnography, and iconography. Most important, Emerson's promising methodological approach combines qualitative grace with the strength and structure of excavated data. Upper-division undergraduates and above. S. R. Martin Michigan Technological University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review