Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Jodie O’Gorman and PhD alumni Dr. Jennifer Bengtson and Dr. Amy Michael recently published an article in World Archaeology entitled, “Ancient history and new beginnings: necrogeography and migration in the North American midcontinent.” The article discusses how the use of mortuary space and practices contributed to place-making within the context of a migration episode at a cemetery in west-central Illinois (AD 1300–1400).
Read the full article at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2019.1736138
Abstract: “Creation of deathscapes is integral to human place-making and the construction of our past, present, and future. As people practice mortuary rituals and related behaviours, space and time are conflated as they engage with spatial, temporal, and ideological aspects of the landscape, existing deathscapes, and ritual objects. Migration episodes offer an important spatio-temporal context for examining the construction of deathscape, and at the same time, insight into the new deathscape practices can help inform the migration event itself. Through the use of a case study with a well-documented migration event and mortuary program data from the North American midcontinent, we examine the intersections of time and space in the construction of deathscape among the post-migration Oneota tradition (ca. AD 1300–1400). In a contentious landscape dominated by Mississippian peoples, the newcomers created ties to their new location by actively creating and practicing new traditions while maintaining important links to their own history.”