2021 Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Springer Nature, New York. 2 volumes, 1560 pp.
Summary
This book, in two volumes, breathes fresh air empirically, methodologically, and theoretically into understanding the rich ceremonial lives, the philosophical-religious knowledge, and the impressive material feats and labor organization that distinguish Hopewell Indians of central Ohio and neighboring regions during the first centuries CE. The first volume defines cross-culturally, for the first time, the “ritual drama” as a genre of social performance. It reconstructs and compares parts of 14 such dramas that Hopewellian and other Woodland-period peoples performed in their ceremonial centers to help the soul-like essences of their deceased make the journey to an afterlife. The second volume builds and critiques ten formal cross-cultural models of “personhood” and the “self” and infers the nature of Scioto Hopewell people’s ontology. Two facets of their ontology are found to have been instrumental in their creating the intercommunity alliances and cooperation and gathering the labor required to construct their huge, multicommunity ceremonial centers: a relational, collective concept of the self defined by the ethical quality of the relationships one has with other beings, and a concept of multiple soul-like essences that compose a human being and can be harnessed strategically to create familial-like ethical bonds of cooperation among individuals and communities.
The archaeological reconstructions of Hopewellian ritual dramas and concepts of personhood and the self, and of Hopewell people’s strategic uses of these, are informed by three large surveys of historic Woodland and Plains Indians’ narratives, ideas, and rites about journeys to afterlives, the creatures who inhabit the cosmos, and the nature and functions of soul-like essences, coupled with rich contextual archaeological and bioarchaeological-taphonomic analyses. The bioarchaeological-taphonomic method of l’anthropologie de terrain, new to North American archaeology, is introduced and applied. In all, the research in this book vitalizes a vision of an anthropology committed to native logic and motivation and skeptical of the imposition of Western world views and categories onto native peoples.
The archaeological reconstructions of Hopewellian ritual dramas and concepts of personhood and the self, and of Hopewell people’s strategic uses of these, are informed by three large surveys of historic Woodland and Plains Indians’ narratives, ideas, and rites about journeys to afterlives, the creatures who inhabit the cosmos, and the nature and functions of soul-like essences, coupled with rich contextual archaeological and bioarchaeological-taphonomic analyses. The bioarchaeological-taphonomic method of l’anthropologie de terrain, new to North American archaeology, is introduced and applied. In all, the research in this book vitalizes a vision of an anthropology committed to native logic and motivation and skeptical of the imposition of Western world views and categories onto native peoples.
Table of Contents
Dedication to James A. Brown
Part I. Rationale
Part I. Rationale
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Chapter 1.
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Introduction. Christopher Carr
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Chapter 2.
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Understanding Past Peoples by Listening. Christopher Carr
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Chapter 3.
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Religion, Sacred, and Other Quandaries: Writing in Culture-Relevant Categories. Christopher Carr and William Rex Weeks, Jr.
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Part II. Ritual Dramas: Global Perspectives
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Chapter 4.
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The Notion of the “Ritual Drama” in Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspective. Christopher Carr
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Part III. Ethnohistorical and Bioarchaeological Foundations for Reconstructing Hopewellian Ritual Dramas
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Chapter 5.
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The Method of L’Anthropologie de Terrain and Its Potential for Investigating Ohio Hopewell Mortuary Records. Anna C. Novotny
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Chapter 6.
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Journeys to Afterlives in the Cosmologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians: Inventory, Frequencies, and Geographic Distributions of Elements in Oral Narratives. Christopher R. Caseldine, Christopher Carr, and Samantha R. Feinberg
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Chapter 7.
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Journeys to Afterlives in the Cosmologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians: Interwoven Elements, Their Regional Distinctions, and Meta-Narratives. Christopher Carr and Christopher R. Caseldine
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Chapter 8.
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Underwater-Underground Creatures in the Cosmologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians as Told in Oral Narratives. Christopher Carr
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Chapter 9.
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The Ferocious Dog, Brain-Taker, the Keen-Eyed Owl, and Other Persons in the Cosmologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians as Told in Oral Narratives. Christopher Carr
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Part IV. Ritual Dramas of Scioto Hopewell Peoples
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Chapter 10.
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Souls in Flight: Ritual Dramas of Death Journeys through the Above Realm(s) of Scioto Hopewell Societies. Christopher Carr and Anna C. Novotny
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Chapter 11.
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More Souls in Flight: Ritual Dramas of Death Journeys through the Above Realm(s) of Hopewellian and Adena Societies Beyond the Scioto. Christopher Carr
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Chapter 12.
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Mississippian, Effigy Mound Complex, and Georgia Woodland Bird-Persons and Bird Effigies: A Comparison to Adena and Hopewellian Cases. Christopher Carr
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Chapter 13.
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The Family and Community in Three Scioto Hopewell Ritual Dramas of Death Journeys. Christopher Carr
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Chapter 14.
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Little Miami Hopewell Ritual Dramas of Death Journeys through the Lower Realm(s). Christopher Carr
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Chapter 15.
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The Genre of the Ritual Drama in Ohio Hopewellian Ceremonialism: A Comparative Summary. Christopher Car
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Part V. Personhood: Global Perspectives
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Chapter 16.
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Notions of Personhood and Being across Cultures: Models in the Social Sciences. Christopher Carr
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Part VI. Ethnohistorical Foundations for Reconstructing Hopewellian Notions of Human Personhood
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Chapter 17.
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The Human Person as Multiple Soul-like Essences in the Ontologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians: Inventory, Frequencies, and Geographic Distributions of Concepts in Oral Narratives. Brianna J. Rafidi, Christopher Carr, and Mary F. Kupsch
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Chapter 18.
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The Human Person as Multiple Soul-like Essences in the Ontologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians: Interwoven Elements, Their Regional Distinctions, and Meta-Themes across Oral Narratives. Brianna J. Rafidi, Christopher Carr, and Mary F. Kupsch
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Part VII. Human Personhood among Scioto Hopewell Peoples
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Chapter 19.
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Scioto Hopewell Relational Personhood and Social Cooperation: Unmasking the Projection of Western Competition onto Ritual Flamboyance and Paths to Social Complexity. Christopher Carr
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Chapter 20.
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The Scioto Hopewell Human Person as Multiple Soul-like Essences: Society-Wide Commonalities and Age and Gender Distinctions. Christopher Carr and Heather L. Smyth
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Chapter 21.
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Ohio Hopewell Human Persons as Multiple Soul-like Essences: Intercommunity and Regional Distinctions. Christopher Carr and Heather L. Smyth
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Chapter 22.
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Nested Personhood, Masking, and the Question of Personnages in Scioto Hopewell, Adena, and Glacial Kame Societies. Christopher Carr
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