Cultural Pluralism and Complexity: Analyzing a Cahokian Ritual Outpost

Abstract

In this study I use micro-scale evidence of day to day living and macroscale regional comparisons, to suggest that toward the end of the Lohmann phase (A.D. 1050-1100), a series of administrative centers were founded in order to more fully integrate upland people into the Cahokian sphere. This in turn, was accomplished through communal commemorative rituals. As this study demonstrates, the Grossmann site was the location of a Cahokian administrative center, mediating relationships between the Cahokian elite and upland farmers. The interactions of farmers and Cahokians at places like Grossmann were a key element in the production of Mississippian culture, as well a new kind of social and political complexity.