Early Pottery in the Southeast

Download or read book Early Pottery in the Southeast written by Kenneth E. Sassaman and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2011-06-30 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Dan Josselyn Memorial Publication Among southeastern Indians pottery was an innovation that enhanced the economic value of native foods and the efficiency of food preparation. But even though pottery was available in the Southeast as early as 4,500 years ago, it took nearly two millenia before it was widely used. Why would an innovation of such economic value take so long to be adopted? The answer lies in the social and political contexts of traditional cooking technology. Sassaman's book questions the value of using technological traits alone to mark temporal and spatial boundaries of prehistoric cultures and shows how social process shapes the prehistoric archaeological record.