New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida

" Theoretically sophisticated and empirically well-grounded. Sets a course for exciting new directions in archaeology at the edge of the American South and the broader Caribbean world. " --Christopher B. Rodning, coeditor of Archaeological Studies of Gender in the Southeastern United States" Successfully repositions the story of Florida''s native peoples from the peripheries of history and anthropology to center stage. " --Thomas E. Emerson, author of Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power" If you thought you understood the Native settlement of Florida, read this and think again. The research and thinking that have taken place in recent decades, highlighted in this volume, have markedly changed our understanding, revealing a past far more interesting and richly constituted than anything previously considered." --David G. Anderson, coauthor of Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology" Provides a fresh perspective on Florida''s past and how its Native American inhabitants created the world in which they lived." --Richard W. Jefferies, author of Holocene Hunter-Gatherers of the Lower Ohio River Valley: From the Falls to the Confluence

Given its pivotal location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, its numerous islands, its abundant flora and fauna, and its subtropical climate, Florida has long been ideal for human habitation. Representing the next wave of southeastern archaeology, the essays in this book resoundingly argue that Florida is a crucial hub of archaeological inquiry. Contributors use new data to challenge well-worn models of environmental determinism and localized social contact. Themes of monumentality, human alterations of landscapes, the natural environment, ritual and mortuary practices, and coastal adaptations demonstrate the diversity, empirical richness, and broader anthropological significance of Florida''s aboriginal past.

Neill J. Wallis is assistant curator in archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History and author of The Swift Creek Gift. Asa R. Randall is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma.A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series, edited by Kathleen Deagan, William Keegan, William Marquardt, Elizabeth Benchley, and Vernon " Jim" Knigh