Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 –1300

CHAPTER 9
PITS, PLANTS, AND PLACE:
Recognizing Late Prehistoric Subsistence and Settlement Diversity
in the Upper Susquehanna Drainage
Timothy D. Knapp
Historically, variation in Late Prehistoric subsistence
and settlement has been downplayed while anthropologists
and archaeologists working in the Northeast
have focused on explaining the island-like distribution
of Northern Iroquoians (the Five Nation Iroquois, the
Huron, the Petun, the Neutral, the Wenro, the Erie, and
the Susquehannock) in what is otherwise an
Algonquian sea (Griffin 1943; Hewitt 1892; Lenig 1965;
Morgan 1990; Niemczycki 1984, 1987, 1988; Ritchie
1980; Ritchie and Funk 1973; Snow 1994, 1995, 1996;
Tuck 1971). Seventeenth-century Northern Iroquoians
differed from their Algonquian-speaking neighbors in
several key respects: matrilineal descent and matrilocal
residence; a sedentary settlement system focused on
semipermanent year-round villages; longhouse residential
structures; heavy reliance on maize horticulture;
and distinctive languages. Scholarly explanations
for this distribution fall into one of two camps: some
propose an in-migration of proto-Iroquoian agriculturists
who displaced resident populations (Morgan 1990;
Parker 1916; Snow 1994, 1995, 1996), while others posit
an in situ development of Iroquoian societies out of
antecedent local Middle Woodland (ca. A.D. 0-900)
hunter-gatherer groups (Funk 1993; Griffin 1943; Lenig
1965; MacNeish 1952; Ritchie and Funk 1973; Tuck
1971). Migration scenarios search for abrupt cultural
discontinuities, viewing these as evidence of a population
influx (e.g., Snow 1995). In contrast, in situ models
seek data that demonstrate cultural continuity,
although often these data are limited to a single cultural
trait—typically ceramics or settlement patterns (e.g.,
MacNeish 1952). Both models of Late Prehistoric development
envision rather rapid change at the beginning
of the Late Prehistoric period (A.D. 800-1000), followed
by a long period (at least five centuries) of relative stasis,
which continued until the arrival of Europeans in
the Northeast (Funk 1993; Ritchie 1980; Ritchie and
Funk 1973; Snow 1994, 1995; Tuck 1971, 1978; but see
Trigger 1990).
Two factors working in tandem have encouraged
static views of the Late Prehistoric period: (1) the
homogenizing influence of temporal classifications,
and (2) a heavy reliance on the direct historic approach.
Temporal classifications, one of the most basic of
archaeological tools, divide time in a way that emphasizes
heterogeneity between periods and homogenization
within periods (Dunnell 1971, 1982; Hart 1999;
O’Brien and Holland 1990). Recognition of a Late
Prehistoric period as distinct from the preceding
Middle Woodland requires an emphasis on the differences
between periods and a masking of within-period
variation. When archaeologists talk about Late
Prehistoric subsistence and settlement, we often conflate
spatial and temporal variability into a single
essence, thereby obscuring potentially important
diversity.
Coupled with the homogenizing effect of temporal
periods has been a heavy reliance on the direct historic
approach. The Direct Historical Approach, an important
form of analogic reasoning, was first used in the
Southwest at the end of the nineteenth century, and
became prominent in the mid-twentieth century, when
archaeologists applied this technique on the Plains
(Cushing 1886; Fewkes 1896, 1900; Strong 1933, 1935;
Wedel 1938). Archaeological research by its nature
must rely on analogy (Ascher 1961; Stahl 1993; Wylie
1985, 1988). The selection of appropriate analogies is
guided by a set of relevancy criteria (Stahl 1993; Wylie
1985, 1988), in the case of the direct historical approach,
“proximity in physical time and space” (Stahl
1993:242). Historically minded anthropologists have
repeatedly demonstrated the significant changes to
Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700–1300 by John P. Hart and Christina B. Rieth. New York State Museum
© 2002 by the University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, Albany, New York. All rights reserved.
Chapter 9 Pits, Plants, and Place: Recognizing Late Prehistoric Subsistence and Settlement Diversity in the Upper Susquehanna Drainage 167