American Indian Ways of Life: An Interpretation of the Archaeology of Illinois and Adjoining Areas

GLOSSARY

ADVANCED PHASE: The earliest pottery-making cultures of Woodland in southern Illinois. The peoples seem to have been storers of acorns and hickory nuts. It is sometimes called early Woodland.

AMERINDIAN: The American Indian of Mongolian racial stock so named to distinguish him from the Asiatic Indian who is of the white or Caucasian race.

ANTHROPOLOGY: The study of man and his cultural activities.

ARCHAEOLOGY: The division of anthropology that studies peoples of the past through the remains of their works that are found in the ground.

ARCHAIC (SUBCULTURE): An archaeological subdivision of the Lithic Pattern characterized by broad-bladed barbed spearheads, spearthrower weights and “bannerstones,” small camps, and a hunting-collecting economy (without plant-raising or food-storage).

ARROWHEADS: Projectile points less than three inches long presumed to have been used to tip arrows.

ART: A form of human endeavor in which the individual or artist, with more or less skill, tries to produce an object or activity of such a nature that it is esthetically satisfying in some sense both to himself and to his group generally.

ARTIFACTS: Any object made by man, or a natural object modified by man, in order to satisfy a cultural need. (Only the names and uses of artifacts that are not self-explanatory appear in the glossary).

ATLATL: See SPEARTHROWER.

ASSEMBLAGE: In this paper assemblage refers to the selected significant artifact types of an archaeological unit. In a more general sense, it signifies the aggregate of artifacts found at a particular site, or in a deposit belonging to a single culture at the site.

AX: Refers in this paper to the grooved ground stone head resembling the modern steel ax in general form and presumably used for chopping in a somewhat similar manner.

AZTALAN: The site of a Middle Phase fortified village with mounds in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, in the Cahokia Subculture. It was investigated by the Milwaukee Public Museum. See S. A. Barrett in Bibliography.

BARB: A projection or shoulder near the base of the blade of a spear, dart or arrowhead that serves to retain it in a wound and to stimulate bleeding. One of a number of “backward” projections on a harpoon that serves a similar purpose.

BAST: The inner bark (phloem) of a tree.

BREECH CLOTH or CLOUT: An article of clothing consisting of a narrow band or fold of cloth or skin that passes around the waist and between the legs.

BURIAL MOUND: Any man-made hill or knoll erected primarily to enclose the dead.

CACHE: A deposit of a large number of artifacts in a grave or, in general, a number of artifacts found together in the earth.

CALUMET: See note, page 48.

CELT: An ungrooved stone or copper hatchet head.

CHIEF: An official selected and formally installed in office by some social process who exercises civil authority by virtue of office.

CHIPPING: See Flaking.

CHOPPER: Generally any tool used for chopping, hewing, or hacking. Specifically, a chipped flint tool roughly hatchet shaped. Some hand choppers have the edge of the blade paralleling the longer axis of the piece.

CHUNKEY STONE: A polished stone disk that was used as a bowl in various types of games.

CIVILIZATION: See note, page 26.

CLASSIC: The term used in this paper to designate the phase to which the Hopewellian Civilization of the Woodland pattern belongs.

CLOVIS POINT: A type of leaf-shaped spearhead with a longitudinal groove (channel or fluting) generally extending one fourth to one half the length of the piece from its base toward its tip.

CLUB: An adaptation of a stick for a weapon or a tool for hurling (throwing stick) or battering (war club). The war club is often weighted with a stone head for greater effectiveness. It differs from the tomahawk in that it has no cutting edge.

CONCHOIDAL FRACTURE: The property of flint and certain other stones when struck with a hammer of chipping away in flakes which leave concave or shell-like scars or hollows. By suitable control methods, tool and weapon heads of desired types can be produced.

CONOIDAL or CONICAL BASE: The characteristic pointed base of Woodland pots.

CRAB ORCHARD: A division of the Baumer subculture.

CULTURE: Culture as used in this paper has one of two meanings, each readily understood in its context. In a general sense, it means the significant beliefs, customary activities and social prohibitions peculiar to man (together with the man-made tools, weapons and other material objects that he finds or has found necessary) that modify, limit or enhance in some manner, most of his discernible natural activities due to his physical animal inheritance and organization. Culture in a specific sense refers to the significant cultural features of the group or period under consideration, the way of life. See FEATURE, CULTURAL.

CUMBERLAND: A subculture of the Middle (Mississippi) Phase that flourished in southern Illinois, western Kentucky and Tennessee, archaeologically known as Gordon-Fewkes or Tennessee-Cumberland.

DAGGER: A long sharp-pointed blade of flint (or a copper pin) presumably hafted with a wooden handle, used as a hunting knife or in hand-to-hand fighting.

DARTHEADS: Medium-sized weapon heads (2½ to 4 inches long) presumably used to tip lances or javelins.

DICKSON MOUND: A burial mound near Lewistown in Fulton County where some three hundred skeletons together with their grave offerings have been exposed to view. It is now a State Park and open to visitors.

DIGGING STICK: A conveniently-shaped stick used by primitive peoples in collecting tubers and roots and small animals, digging storage pits, and for preparing the soil for planting. Antler was sometimes shaped and presumably employed in like manner.

DIGGING TOOL: Any implement employed by primitive peoples in digging—a digging stick, a shell hoe, or a chipped flint hoe.

DOMESTICATION: The breeding and rearing of plants and animals under man’s control and for his needs.

DRIFT (rarely drifter): A blunt tool of antler or bone presumably held in the hand and pressed against a flint to flake it, or one held against the flint piece and struck with a hammer for a like purpose.

DUGOUT: A boat made by hollowing out a log with fire and tools and shaping its exterior suitably for water travel.

ECONOMIC ASPECT: That division of primitive culture concerned primarily with securing and preparing food, shelter, clothing, and raw materials for tools, weapons and other material devices, and the technologies involved. This required considerable knowledge of natural resources, properties of materials, and lay of the land and permits freer direct creative intellectual effort than does any other aspect.

ECONOMY: The chief means of securing food and other basic physical requirements of man, as a hunting-collecting economy.

EFFIGY: Any artifact resembling in outline, in relief, or in the round some living organism or mythical being.

EFFIGY MOUND: A mound of earth in low relief shaped in outline form to resemble an animal or some geometric or other conventionalized form. They are often found in groups together with conical and elongated or linear mounds in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.

EFFIGY POT: A pottery vessel made in the form of an animal, human being, or a part of one, or having conventionalized bird or animal head and tail projecting from opposite sides of rim or mouth (generally of shallow bowls), occurring most commonly in the Middle (Mississippi) Phase.

EXTENDED: As applied to burials, a skeleton lying at full length usually on its side or back.

FAMILY, EXTENDED: A man, his wife or wives, their descendants in the male or female line as custom dictates, and their families who consider themselves as a distinct social unit usually with an acknowledged leader or headman. The extended family usually lives in a local settlement or a limited territory.

FAMILY, SIMPLE: A man, his wife or wives and their unmarried children.

FAMILY-TYPE SOCIAL CONTROL: The manner of maintaining peace, order, and obedience to elders and to custom in tribes and local groups in the Self-Domestication Stage secured by early and strict indoctrination of the young in the family and through public opinion (social approval and disapproval) rather than by force and political agencies.

FEATHER CLOTH: Robes or blankets made by attaching overlapping feathers to the outer surface of a textile or netting to simulate a bird skin.

FEATURE, CULTURAL: Any type of cultural organization (or institution) within a tribe or independent cultural unit such as marriage, the family division of labor, social control, political governing agency, Sacred Tradition (“mythology”), etc.

FERTILITY RITES: The religious ceremonies performed in a primitive tribe for the purpose of insuring its welfare, the continuance of an abundant supply of food animals and other natural resources on which it depends, and possibly with expressions of gratitude for past benefits.

FESTIVALS: The term applied to the religious ceremonies of plant-raising peoples that relate to planting and the harvesting of crops.

FINAL PHASE: The decadent Woodland culture, archaeologically known as late Woodland, is characteristic of much of Illinois in the interval between the fall of Hopewellian and the rise of Mississippi.

FLAKER (DRIFT): A flint-working tool either used alone with simple pressure or as a punch struck by a stone hammer (indirect percussion).

FLAKING or CHIPPING: The method of working flint into tools and weapons by direct hammer blows, indirect percussion or by pressure with a flaker.

FLEXED: As applied to burials, a skeleton (generally lying on its side) with knees drawn up to or near chest, arms close to side or with hand(s) near head.

FLINT: In this paper, any stone that flakes with a conchoidal fracture that was so used by Amerindians to make chipped tools and weapons.

FOLSOM POINT: A flint spearhead having the faces of the blade hollowed out by chipping (channeling or fluting) except for a narrow strip paralleling each edge including the tip (see Figure 3, page 11).

FOOD-DRAFT ANIMALS: The large mammals (especially the ox) that were domesticated by man and besides providing him with a continuously available supply of meat, served as a beast of burden or to draw a wheeled vehicle, to drag the plough, and as a source of energy to turn the mill. Animals were not generally so used in North America.

FOOD-STORERS: Those peoples who by virtue of native ingenuity and some special natural resource in their region were enabled to store up sufficient food supplies to last them for several months.

FORMALIZED RELIGION: The forms of prayer, worship, devotion and ritual and the organization of priests, etc. by which plant-raising tribes carry on their assumed relationships with the world of the unknown agents of natural forces.

GORGET: (pronounced gor´-jet) A large flat artifact, possibly at times an insigne, of stone, shell, copper or bone worn on the chest.

GRAVE GOODS: The jewelry, insignia, weapons or implements of a dead tribesman together with offerings that may have been placed in his grave by friends or relatives, including vessels containing food and water. Also called beigaben, funeral offerings, grave furniture, etc.

GRINDING: The process by which a stone, bone, shell or metal artifact was shaped by rubbing with sand and water or against a piece of sandstone (abrader).

GRINDING STONE: A large flat or slightly hollowed stone on which seeds, berries, or nuts were crushed or ground by a smaller hand stone (muller or pestle).

GUARDIAN SPIRIT: Among primitive peoples, a being from the invisible spirit world who appeared to a person in a dream and was believed to serve the dreamer thereafter as his personal protector.

HAMLET: The name used in this paper for local settlements of Archaic and Initial Woodland sites. They probably had populations of less than one hundred persons.

HAMMERSTONE: A stone hammer. Any native or modified cobblestone used as a hammer.

HATCHET: A ground stone or copper celt head. Tomahawk or hafted hatchet.

HOUSEHOLD: A man, his wife, and children, married and unmarried together with slaves and others, if any, who customarily in their culture live under one shelter or roof.

INDIRECT PERCUSSION: The use of a punch with a hammer, especially in the chipping of stone.

INITIAL PHASE: The earliest pottery-making cultures of Woodland in northern Illinois, archaeologically known as early Woodland.

INITIATION RITES: Puberty rites. As used in this paper, the ceremonies by which a boy on “becoming of age” is admitted to adult membership in the tribe. Somewhat simpler rites are performed for girls also in some tribes.

INSIGNE: (Plural insignia) Any artifact worn by primitive people as a symbol of rank or class, birth (in a particular family), office, priesthood, or of individual prowess.

INSTITUTIONS: See Social Structure.

JEWELRY: Any object other than insignia, paint, or clothing worn by primitive man as personal adornment.

KINCAID COMMUNITY: The site of a Middle Phase village, mounds, fortifications and other cultural remains in Pope and Massac counties, Illinois, on the Ohio River a few miles above Paducah, Kentucky.

LAKE BAIKAL: A large inland lake in the south of Siberia. Pottery from the surrounding region resembles generalized Woodland ware, especially that of the Initial Phase.

LINEAGE: The social group (including dead persons) whose members are descended from some certain or mythical ancestor, either male or female as the custom prevails, and which considers itself a distinct social unit. (See also Extended Family.)

LITHIC: A term employed in this paper as embracing cultures roughly equivalent to those of the Self-Domestication Stage, but without pottery.

MANA: Superhuman power that primitive man believed to reside in certain inanimate objects, in certain persons at times and in spirits, that under suitable conditions could be transferred either wholly or in part to other objects or persons. Improperly handled it was a source of grave danger.

MIDDLE PHASE: The archaeological term for the highest development of the Mississippi pattern in the United States. In Illinois it is represented by the Cahokia and Cumberland subcultures.

MISSISSIPPI: The major archaeological pattern that succeeded the earlier Woodland in most of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and High Plains and that was still in existence in some parts of this country as late as 1700 A.D. It is characterized by relatively intensive plant-raising, political government, walled villages, temples (or sacred groves) and a priesthood, semi- to permanent dwellings, pottery of varied shapes, with globular bodies and secondary features, the bow and arrow.

MODOC ROCK SHELTER: An ancient settlement of Archaic peoples in Randolph County, Illinois, dating from 8000 to 2100 B.C. See Bibliography under Deuel, and Fowler and Winters.

MOUND: Any rise or hill of earth and/or stone that resulted from some activity of man, such as refuse mound, shell mound, burial mound, temple mound, etc. See BURIAL, EFFIGY, TEMPLE.

MOUND BUILDERS: A term having little significance, meaning any group that erected mounds. In American archaeology it sometimes refers specifically to Hopewellians, to Mississippians or to both.

MYTHOLOGY: See SACRED TRADITION.

OBSIDIAN: Volcanic glass, a material imported by Hopewellians possibly from Wyoming. Rare in Illinois.

PALEO-INDIAN (See Clovis and Folsom): Hunters of big game who roamed over North America in glacial times.

PATTERN: The largest archaeological unit in the McKern Classification System.

PECKING: The process (other than chipping) by which a stone artifact was brought to general shape by breaking off small particles with a stone hammer.

PEOPLE: The term “people” as used in this paper does not refer to a physical type but simply to cultural groups unless specifically stated to the contrary.

PERIOD: Unless otherwise specifically stated, the word applies to a cultural level regardless of time and place.

PHASE: The major division of the pattern as used in the McKern Classification System.

PLANT-RAISING: The economy or cultural status of a cultural group who grew food (and fibre) plants but were without domesticated food-draft animals.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION: A formalized social means of controlling the members of a nation or tribe and compelling compliance with established customs or laws with defined customary or lawful penalties for violations together with the machinery for determining equity, rights, or damages in non-criminal disputes through governmental agencies such as officers (chiefs) and official bodies (councils) regularly selected for these purposes.

POLISHING: A process by which the surface of a ground stone artifact was brought to a high degree of smoothness and gloss by rubbing with fine earth and water. It is readily distinguishable from polish due to wear in digging.

PRIEST: Any person selected in a regular and customary manner for religious office who by virtue of installation into that office and acceptance of the duties is (believed to be) invested with the power to communicate and intercede with members of the spirit world, a god or gods or in certain instances to act for them on behalf of his group.

PRIMITIVE PEOPLE: Refers to any people in the Self-Domestication Stage and to the simple plant-growers of the Farming Period.

PROTOCULTURAL: A stage presumed to have existed prior to man’s discovery of the principle of conchoidal fracturing of flint, when he used native sticks and stones as tools, and sometimes by haphazard breaking of these secured new forms more suitable for his purposes.

PROTOMISS: An abbreviated form for Protomississippi, the earliest known subculture of the Middle (Mississippi) Phase in southwestern Illinois. Dillinger is the type site.

RELIGION: The set of beliefs (Sacred Tradition), rules (tabus), and activities (including rituals) that govern the life of a society with regard to those superhuman forces with which the individual feels himself surrounded and which neither he nor his group by themselves can control. Religious practice includes prayers or requests for the continuance of well-being and life’s necessities, thanksgiving for past blessings, and a belief in the necessity of right conduct of the individuals in their daily living. In all known primitive religions, a belief in some form exists of spirit beings and/or gods with superhuman powers. See FORMALIZED RELIGION.

ROCK SHELTER: An overhanging rock ledge facing away from the prevailing wind that afforded protection to a primitive family from the elements and wild animals.

ROUGH STONE: This term refers to stone used as it occurs in nature with virtually no artificial modification other than that resulting from use such as a common hammerstone, an unworked abrader, or a grinding stone. The stone may have a relatively smooth surface due to natural causes.

SACRED TRADITION: The term used here to signify the embodiment of the significant (effective) beliefs and rules that governed the behavior and activities of a primitive tribe in matters relating to the unseen world of spirits (or gods) and unknown forces, which were handed down from generation to generation. It is usually included in the inept term “mythology” which may also contain tales and legends that serve for mere entertainment.

SELF-DOMESTICATION STAGE: The earliest stage of true human culture which began presumably with the discovery of controlled flint chipping and the invention of flint tool types. During this stage, man is enabled to secure a fairly constant food supply by hunting and collecting, keeps his young under parental care and control for several years and learns to accommodate himself more or less peaceably to his family and to fellow tribesmen during brief periods of religious and social gatherings.

SHAMAN: A person who by virtue of dreams or visions believes he can communicate with spirits, obtain from them superhuman powers for the benefit of his social group and tribe and who has demonstrated these abilities over a greater or longer time to the satisfaction of his fellows.

SHELLS, MARINE: Shells from the ocean or Gulf of Mexico, raw materials secured by traders or through exchange for other goods. The most common marine shells found in Illinois cultures are the Cassis madagascarensis (Hopewellian), the Busycon or Fulgar (Middle Mississippi and Hopewellian), Marginella (Initial Woodland, Hopewellian and Middle Mississippi), Oliva (Middle Mississippi), and Olivella (Hopewellian).

SOCIAL ASPECT: That division of primitive culture that is concerned preeminently with preserving and stabilizing fundamental customs, with the maintenance of peace and order within its primary social units, and to this end, in the organization, functioning and continuation of such units.

SOCIAL CONTROL: Any general social means by which a social or political group preserves peace and order within itself and group protection against outsiders (see Family-type and Political Agency).

SOCIAL STRUCTURE: The persisting system of significant relationships in a society that prevails without regard to the particular individuals involved.

SPEARHEADS: Projectile points 3 to 6 or 6½ inches long presumed to have been used to tip spears.

SPEARTHROWER (ATLATL): A short stick by which increased leverage is obtained in hurling a spear. It gives greater range and an accuracy comparable to the bow at shorter distances.

SPEARTHROWER WEIGHT: A weight secured to the spearthrower for controlling it and increasing the speed of the spear.

SPEAR, THRUSTING: A long spear that is fitted with a long, narrow head generally without barbs or shoulders, that can be easily withdrawn from a wound. It is primarily for use in the hand, not for throwing.

SPECIALIZATION (CRAFT): An occupation in which a man or household of a primitive community engages primarily to the considerable exclusion of the general economic pursuits or the remainder of his group. It should not be confused with the production of a highly skilled craftsman.

SPECIALIZATION (OF TOOLS): Applies to numerous variations in the forms derived from a general artifact type presumably to accomplish better and more easily certain special requirements of construction or manufacture.

STAGE (CULTURAL): One of the major periods into which cultures may be divided by virtue of its degree of development which depends primarily on the fundamental invention that ushered it in.

SPIRITUAL ASPECT: That division of primitive culture concerned primarily with tribal values, religion, recreation and the arts.

STATUS (CULTURAL): A subdivision of a stage. A substage.

STONE: Unless otherwise noted any kind of stone generally used by primitive peoples for pecking, grinding and polishing into weapons, tools, etc., for example, granite, greenstone, gneiss, shale, limestone, basalt.

STONE VAULT GRAVE: A type of burial mound consisting chiefly of flat stones enclosing a walled-up tomb chamber, the whole covered with earth. In Illinois known at present only from Adams County.

STONE VAULT SUBCULTURE: A division of Final Woodland Phase that is characterized by stone vault graves.

SUBCULTURE: Any archaeological grouping smaller than a phase.

SUBSTAGE or STATUS: A subdivision of a Stage that develops as the result of a significant invention, discovery of a special resource, or some other condition of the surroundings.

TECHNOLOGY: The processes by which any artifact is produced.

TEEPEE: A conical framework of poles covered with bark, skins, brush, mats, etc. used as a shelter or hut by primitive peoples.

TEMPERING: Foreign material such as sand, crushed limestone, plant fibers, crushed shell, etc. mixed with the clay in pottery-making to render the vessel less likely to crack in firing.

TEMPLE MOUND: A rectangular pyramid with a flat top on which a temple was built. Similar mounds were used for council and chief’s houses among historic Mississippi peoples. Flat-topped pyramidal mounds are characteristic of the important Middle Mississippi sites in Illinois.

THERMAL MAXIMUM: A time interval (roughly between 5000 and 2000 B.C.) in which the climate was warmer and drier than at present.

TOMAHAWK: A hafted hatchet of stone or metal used in fighting.

TOTEM: An animal, plant or inanimate object that is regarded as the symbol of a social or political group.

TUMPLINE: A sling or pack strap that rests on the forehead, passes over the shoulders, and is used for carrying a load on the back.

TURKEY-TAIL: A large spearhead, broadly oval in the middle and double-pointed with notches near one end.

TYPE STATION(S): The site (or sites) that at present seem, to the author, to give the fullest view of life in a subculture, including as far as possible a village (or camp) and burial site.

WAR (ARCHAIC): The blood feud. In the Archaic period, this was the method of interfamily or intergroup retaliation for murder or other serious injury to one family or local group by a member of another. It was carried on by alternate sneak raids between the local settlements involved, with the object of killing one or more members of the group attacked, (destroying property), and escaping without loss.

WAR (PLANT-RAISERS): Hostilities between plant-raising tribes were pursued by sneak raids having for their objectives the surprise and attack of villages, the ambush of enemy parties, and the capture of prisoners. (Murder, black magic, and other crimes committed within the tribe were generally dealt with by socio-judicial custom).

WATTLE AND DAUB: A framework of posts, interlaced with branches and twigs and plastered over with clay for house and fortification walls common in Middle Phase and probably in other periods.

WIGWAM: As used here, a roughly hemispherical hut having a framework of poles set in the ground with their tops arched over and secured together, the whole covered over with leafy branches, skins, bark, mats or thatch.

WINDBREAK: A vertical or inclined framework of poles covered with branches and leaves, skins, bark, etc. erected by primitive peoples as a shelter against wind, sun, and storm.

WOODLAND: One of the major archaeological patterns of the eastern, southern and central United States, characterized by plant-raising (except possibly in its Initial Phase), by elongated globular clay pots (with cord-roughened exteriors, pointed bottoms, and incised line and punctate decoration), hamlets or small villages (except in the Classic Phase), with flint spearheads (but no arrowheads except in Final Phase).

WRAP-AROUND-SKIRT: A rectangular piece of clothing made of skin, fur, or cloth worn by Hopewellian and Middle Mississippi women. It was wrapped around the body from the waist to the knees or below and was secured at the top by a belt or other means.

YUMA POINTS: Chipped spearheads of various general shapes including leaf-shaped forms, without channeling.

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