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Mississippian Women

Name: Mississippian Women
Author: Rachel V. Briggs
ISBN: 9781683406297

Edited by Rachel V. Briggs, Michaelyn S. Harle and Lynne P. Sullivan

Foreword by Sheila Bird

Published by: University of Florida Press

Series: Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

This volume highlights the vital role women played within the diverse societies of the Mississippian world, which spanned the present-day United States South to the Midwest before the seventeenth century.

348 Pages6.14 × 9.2148 b/w illus., 2 tables, notes, bibliography, index

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9781683406297
Published: June 30, 2026

$35.00

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9781683404149
Published: June 11, 2024

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9781683404545
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Description
Authors
Praise
Table of Contents

Highlighting the role of precontact Indigenous women in building and transforming Mississippian culture

This volume highlights how women were powerful farmers, economic decision-makers, spiritual leaders, and agents of social integration in the diverse societies of the Mississippian world, which spanned the present-day United States South to the Midwest before the seventeenth century. While Mississippian societies are some of the most well-researched pre-European contact societies on the continent, little attention has been dedicated specifically to Mississippian women. These chapters offer new insights into the vital role women played within their communities, an approach directly informed by the powerful position of American Indian women within contemporary American Indian communities.

Contributors examine themes such as identity, labor, grieving, cooking, craft production, spatial organization, prestige, morbidity, kinship, and fertility. Case studies include sites throughout the Mississippian world, ranging from Illinois to Florida, including Cahokia and Moundville. Mississippian Women is the first volume to focus solely on the political, social, and economic power of women during this period, linking their actions in building their culture before European colonialism with the work of Indigenous women in the region today.

Rachel V. Briggs is teaching assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Michaelyn S. Harle is an archaeologist at the Tennessee Valley Authority. Lynne P. Sullivan, curator emerita of archaeology at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee, is coeditor of Grit-Tempered: Early Women Archaeologists in the Southeastern United States.

“An eye-opening dive into the lives, contributions, and power of Indigenous women through a myriad of archaeological methods.”—Christina Friberg, author of The Making of Mississippian Tradition
“A welcome and overdue volume for Mississippian archaeology. It will no doubt be useful for Mississippian archaeologists as well as for those interested in gender in past contexts.”—B. Jacob Skousen, coeditor of Tracing the Relational: The Archaeology of Worlds, Spirits, and Temporalities

“Makes a huge contribution to the study of gender not only in the Indigenous cultures of the Southeast but also to engendered archaeology globally. Mississippian Women will be an exciting read for all archaeologists.”—American Antiquity
“A compelling exploration of the roles and experiences of women in the Mississippian societies of North America. This anthology challenges male-centered perspectives of archaeology by focusing on the significant, yet often overlooked, contributions of women in Mississippian culture.”—American Archaeology

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword

1. The Current State of (Mississippian) Women: Archaeology, Gender, and Indigenous Feminism

Rachel V. Briggs and Michaelyn S. Harle

2. Recognizing Women at Cahokia: Farmers; Weavers; Agents of Polity Integration

Gayle J. Fritz

3. Cooks, Cooking, and Cooking Pots: A Landscape of Culinary Practice and the Origins of Moundville, AD 1070–1200

Rachel V. Briggs

4. The Life Course of Women in Upper Tennessee Valley, Dallas Phase Communities

Michaelyn S. Harle, Tracy K. Betsinger, and Lynne P. Sullivan

5. Mississippian Geographies of Fertility: A Multiscalar View from Southeast Missouri

Jennifer Bengtson and Toni Alexander

6. Matrilineal Kinship Networks and Late Mississippian Politics in the Upper Tennessee Valley

Lynne P. Sullivan

7. Where Women Work: Taskscapes and Activity Area Analysis

Ramie A. Gougeon

8. Earth Mother and Her Children: The Role of Mississippian Women in Shaping Beliefs and Material Culture in the Middle Cumberland Region

Robert V. Sharp

9. Gender, Craft Production, and Emerging Power in Mississippian Hierarchical Societies

Maureen S. Meyers

10. Women and Power at Joara, Cuenca, and Fort San Juan

Christopher B. Rodning, Rachel V. Briggs, Robin A. Beck, Gayle J. Fritz, Heather A. Lapham, and David G. Moore

11. Fort Walton Women

Nancy Marie White

12. Learning About and From Mississippian Women

Lynne P. Sullivan

List of Contributors

Index

Books

Authors

Journals

On The Site

Books

Authors

Journals

On The Site

Mississippian Women

Mississippian Women

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