Marcoux Empire Shackles And Hides Summary

The English Contact period in the New World is an established focus among historians as well as archaeologists. Jon Bernard Marcoux takes a step further with his innovative approach to explore how Cherokee households transformed during the English Contact period and if change was a direct result of European contact. Marcoux also questions why the Cherokee even settled in the southern Appalachian region only to abandon it in the 1700s. The origins of the Cherokee settling in the area can only be hypothesized since data recovery is limited at older sites and there are usually no historical documents to support archaeological theories. In Pox, Empire, Shackles, and Hides, Marcoux centers his research on the Townsend Site in Tennessee that holds three archaeological excavation sites. Marcoux wisely does not rely only the data collected at the sites, but also utilizes historical documentation of oral and eye witness accounts. In doing so, Marcoux attempts …show more content…
He analyzes pottery assemblages, architecture, and pit features and how these would change in the mist of the shatter zone. Based on the analysis of temper type, density of temper, and vessel thickness, Marcoux identified three potting traditions at the Townsend Site. Two of the three potting traditions, Qualla and Overhill, but Marcoux discovered a new tradition that combines elements of both Qualla and Overhill, which Marcoux defines as the Tuckaleechee Series (p. 105). Since the new tradition defined was a combination of two older traditions, Marcoux hypothesized that the community itself combined, just like the pottery, in an adaptation to the shatter zone. He proposes that the Cherokee identity is changing therefor the materials and housing would change along with the identity (136). This theory is insightful as well as quite plausible. Marcoux defends his idea the pottery data as well as the analysis of the