(with Haley Tallman and Heather Stone)
2014 Thinking Outside the Sandbox: Teaching the Whole Process of Archaeology. Poster presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Champaign, IL.
- This poster describes our newly developed “Archaeology: Culture Scene Investigation” program at Angel Mounds State Historic Site, where 6th and 7th grade students were led through a simulated archaeological research program, from survey to publication. A copy of the poster can be downloaded here.
(with Haley Tallman and Heather Stone)
2013 Bringing Baggataway Back to the Mounds. Poster presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Columbus, OH.
- This poster describes the Baggataway at the Mounds event sponsored by Friends of Angel Mounds in September, 2013. The event is, to our knowledge, the first time a game of native stickball (a.k.a. Baggataway) has been played on the site of a major Mississippian mound center in centuries. A copy of the poster can be downloaded here.
2012 The Life of Cahokian Ideology: A Narrative. Paper presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, East Lansing, MI.
- An attempt to piece together various lines of evidence into a coherent narrative of the rise and decline of the leadership ideology at Cahokia. I suggest that the Cahokia phenomenon was centered on a religious revitalization movement led by a single charismatic leader. Ultimately, quite speculative.
2011 Religion at Angel. In Angel Mounds: A Mississippian Town on the Ohio River. By Besse Freeman LeBudde and Marjorie Melvin. pp. 43-49. Friends of Angel Mounds, Evansville, IN.
- A brief discussion of Mississippian religion and the archaeological methods used to study it. It is part of a general introduction to the archaeology of Angel Mounds, published as a guidebook for sale in the site’s museum shop.
2010 The Cross-in-Circle Motif at Angel. Paper presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Bloomington, IN.
- An examination of the Cross-in-Circle motif. I examine the sequence of design choices necessary to produce the hundreds of motifs known from Angel, and conclude that the motif probably had at least two distinct (if closely related) meanings to the Angel people.
2010 Performance in Everyday Experience. Paper presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis, MO.
- An examination of the concept of performance from the perspective of folkoristics and material culture studies. It argues that these concepts could significantly help archaeologists in understanding prehistoric behaviors, by extending the concept of “performance” beyond special occassions.
2008 Iconography and Social Organization at Wickliffe. Paper presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Milwaukee, WI.
- The section of my dissertation research (described on the Degrees page) relevant to Wickliffe. Based on an analysis of iconography, it concludes that Wickliffe ideology was relatively non-hierarchical when compared to other Mississippian sites, but that Wickliffe politics probably focused more on individuals than other Lower Ohio Valley Mississippian sites.
2007 Iconography and Ideology at Angel Site. Paper presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Knoxville, TN.
- The section of my dissertation research (described on the Degrees page) relevant to Angel Site. Based on an analysis of iconography, it concludes that Angel ideology was relatively non-hierarchical when compared to other Mississippian sites, but that the most relevant social divisions at Angel were those between elites and commoners.
2005 Vertically Focused Ideology at Spiro, Oklahoma. Paper presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Columbia, SC.
- A brief example of the theoretical basis for my more extensive dissertation research (described on the Degrees page), using published materials from Spiro, Oklahoma. It argues that, because of Spiro’s apparent focus on vertical (i.e., hierarchical) types of social and political organization, the ideologies and iconographies promoted by its leaders should have had certain characteristics. These characteristics are then demonstrated in the published iconographic corpus.
2005 The Vacant Quarter Hypothesis: A Summary of Previous Thought. Paper presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Dayton, OH.
- The history of the Vacant Quarter Hypothesis is summarized, along with the arguments for and against it. Ideas in the published concerning where and when the abandonment occurred, why it occurred, and where emigrants when are also examined. Finally, a model combining environmental, social, and historical factors is offered as a first attempt to explain the abandonment of the Vacant Quarter.
(with Christopher Carr and Cynthia Keller)
2005 Animal Totemic Clans of Ohio Hopewell Peoples. In Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction. edited by Christopher Carr and D.Troy Case, pp. 339-385. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press, New York.
- This chapter begins with an extensive survey of Eastern Woodlands ethnohistory, compiling evidence for clan, phratry, moiety, and sodality organization in many tribes. These patterns are compared to several artifact classes found in Ohio Hopewell burials, leading to the conclusion that animal skeletal elements represent clan affiliation. Using this conclusion, many aspects of the Ohio Hopewell clan organization are inferred.
2004 Regional Variation in the Construction of Mississippian Birdmen: Unlocking Identities. Paper presented at the 50th MAC and 61st SEAC meetings, St.Louis, MO.
- An examination of Mississippian Birdmen from a content perspective, rather than style. Argues that, while the anatomical construction of Birdmen varies from one part of the Mississippian world to another, the social roles depicted do not, and therefore Mississippian societies all recognized the same mythological character.
(with Cynthia Keller)
2003 Ohio Hopewell Clan Organization: Their Locality, Interrelations, and Prestige. Paper presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee, WI.
- An abbreviated version of my 2005 book chapter (above).
2002 Mississippian Oral Narratives at Spiro, Oklahoma, and Their Implications of Spiro Leadership. Paper presented at 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver, CO.
- A much abbreviated version of my Masters thesis (described on the Degrees page).
2001 Archaeological Evidence for Oral Narratives at Spiro, Oklahoma. Paper presented at 1st Annual Graduate Student Conference on American Indian Research, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
- Another abbreviated version of my Masters thesis (described on the Degrees page).
2000 Digression and Insertion in a Belizean Folktale. Journal of American Folklore 113:185-194.
- This paper examines the narrative strategies of digression and insertion, used by Belizean Creole storyteller Violet Wade while telling the traditional story “Green Seal.”
1999 The Logic of Inducing Belief. Paper presented at the 3rd Multidisciplinary Conference on Holidays, Ritual, Festival, Celebration, and Public Display, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.
- A short conference paper addressing the question, “How can we know that others believe a particular statement?” from a strictly logical perspective.