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Creating and Abandoning “Homeland”: Cahokia as Place of Origin

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Abstract

“Diaspora” is typically used in reference to large-scale population dispersals across borders of modern nation-states. This concept has particular connotations with regard to political dynamics and the creation of social identities of difference; however, similar movements of people who retain an identity of a collective “homeland” may be useful for understanding some aspects of cultural influence and complexity in the Mississippian Southeast. Here, we consider the debate over concepts of “diaspora” and “homeland,” identifying aspects of diaspora theory that provide a useful lens through which to understand Cahokia’s impact in the greater Southeast, specifically in the construction of a physical, ancestral, and/or metaphorical Place of Origin as referential “homeland.” We then consider the implications of this Central Place in the context of abandonment and small-scale out-migrations within the Greater Cahokia region. While certain non-human bodies and material practices are “carried away,” others are abandoned altogether. We consider what these choices can tell us about the process of dissolution of this once-created Place of Origin, Cahokia.

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Baltus, M.R., Baires, S.E. Creating and Abandoning “Homeland”: Cahokia as Place of Origin. J Archaeol Method Theory 27, 111–127 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-019-09433-x

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