Transforming Places and Persons: Community and Personhood at the Mississippian Transition in the Southern American Bottom

Several researchers have questioned the assumed role of space as merely a static backdrop to the actions of people and now recognize the active role space, architecture, and monuments play in constructing personhood and community identities. In this paper I will measure the degree to which communities and spaces were altered at the onset of the Mississippian period in the southern American Bottom through analyses of settlement histories and production activities and techniques at several Mississippian transition sites located south of Cahokia. These investigations will provide evidence for alterations or continuity in daily practices as demonstrated through changes in spatiality.