Customer Reviews

Gulf Coast Archaeology: The Southeastern United States and Mexico

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This book, an edited volume of archaeological studies of the possible relationships between the cultures of the Southeast and the cultures of Mexico and Central America, provides a much-needed analysis of the ways in which the peoples of the Southeast - especially those surrounding the Gulf of Mexico - may have shared elements of culture prior to European contact.

It has long been argued that the Mississippian societies observed by the earliest Spanish explorers were strongly influenced by the cultures of Mesoamerica, particularly the Olmec, the Toltec, and the Aztecs. This book takes a serious, detailed look at the ways in which such influence may have taken place prior to European contact, via water through the Gulf of Mexico and through the dissemination of elements such as platform mound construction, cultural symbols, and food resources such as maize. The only criticism I have of the book is a bias amongst the authors towards a systemic, materialist view of cultural development; Binford's New Archaeology is largely a dead letter, and it is crucially important to understand the role of systems of belief and ideas in cultural development, rather than attributing all such development to environmental factors.

However, that's a minor quibble with what is otherwise a fantastic beginning study of the ways in which cultures of North and Central America influenced each other. Traversing the Gulf of Mexico is relatively easy, and platform mounds from Safety Harbor and Crystal River in Florida all the way to the earthworks of the Mexican coast attest to common influence and systems of belief. It's good to see modern archaeologists begin to take a serious look at the mechanisms through which such influence took place.