Salt in eastern North America and the Caribbean : history and archaeology / edited by Ashley A. Dumas and Paul N. Eubanks.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Eubanks, Paul Norman, 1986- editor.

Dumas, Ashley A., editor.

Series:

Archaeology of food (Series)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Salt industry and trade--Caribbean Area--History.

Salt industry and trade.

Salt industry and trade--North America--History.

Salt mines and mining--Caribbean Area--History.

Salt mines and mining.

Salt mines and mining--North America--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 229 pages) : illustrations, maps

Edition:

1st edition.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama : The University of Alabama Press, [2021]

Summary:

"Salt, once a highly prized trade commodity essential for human survival, is often overlooked in research because it is invisible in the archaeological record. Salt in Eastern North America and the Caribbean: History and Archaeology brings salt back into archaeology, showing that it was valued as a dietary additive, had curative powers, and was a substance of political power and religious significance for Native Americans. Major salines were embedded in the collective memories and oral traditions for thousands of years as places where physical and spiritual needs could be met. Ethnohistoric documents for many Indian cultures describe the uses, taboos, and other beliefs about salt. The volume is organized into two parts: Salt Histories and Salt in Society. Case studies from prehistory to post-Contact and from New York to Jamaica address what techniques were used to make salt, who was responsible for producing it, how it was used, the impact it had on settlement patterns and sociopolitical complexity, and how economies of salt changed after European contact. Noted salt archaeologist Heather McKillop provides commentary to conclude the volume"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

A millennium of salt production in Southwest Alabama / Ashley A. Dumas

Prehistoric uses of salt and mineral springs in the Middle Cumberland region of North-Central Tennessee / Paul N. Eubanks, Kevin E. Smith, Hannah Guidry, and Larry McKee

More than just salt : middle Tennessee's mystical mineral springs / Kevin E. Smith and Paul N. Eubanks

Production of salt in the Onondaga Lake region of New York : from prehistory to history / Ian W. Brown

Salt production and consumption in historic Jamaica / Alyssa Sperry

Salines in the late Pleistocene human landscape of southeastern North America / Steven M. Meredith

Salt making among the precontact southern Caddo of Arkansas / Ann M. Early

Prehistoric salt making writ small : an ancestral Caddo example from East Texas / Nancy A. Kenmotsu and Timothy K. Perttula

Salt archaeology in northwest Louisiana / Paul N. Eubanks

Creating social meaning : the role of salt in multicrafting at the Mississippian periphery

The power of salt in gift exchange and social transformation in the precolonial Caribbean / Joost Morsink

The quest for salt / Heather McKillop.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [177]-216) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8173-9333-1

OCLC:

1235418278