The Ohio Hopewell: Episode Paradigm Lost and Paradigm Gained

Title

The Ohio Hopewell: Episode Paradigm Lost and Paradigm Gained

Authors

A. Martin Byers

Files

Description

Ohio Hopewell Episode, Byers presents a new interpretive reconstruction of the culture of the prehistoric Native American groups who were responsible for these monuments. Basing his interpretation on a careful analysis and classification of the monumental archaeological record, he lays out an empirically and theoretically well-grounded and broad-based symbolic ecological reconstruction of the way of life of the responsible peoples.

Byers’ central premise hinges on the notion that the builders and users of these earthworks perceived the world as immanently sacred. From this he argues that these monuments were to serve as symbolic iconic media by which the balance of sacred life forces of the cosmos could be sustained through world renewal ritual. This central premise, termed the Sacred Earth principle, is thoroughly grounded on his empirical analysis of the embankment earthworks.

Using this as his base, Byers develops the claim that this period of monumental earthwork construction, termed the Ohio Hopewell episode, was the unique expression of a complex social system based on two social principles: kinship and companionship. Kinship was the basis of the egalitarian clans that occupied the land, and companionship was the basis of a system of autonomous world renewal cults.

ISBN

978-1-931968-00-3

Publication Date

Fall 11-1-2004

Publisher

University of Akron Press

City

Akron, OH

Keywords

Archaeology, Ohio History, Moundbuilders

Disciplines

Archaeological Anthropology

The Ohio Hopewell: Episode Paradigm Lost and Paradigm Gained

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