Our Hidden Landscapes
Indigenous Stone Ceremonial Sites in Eastern North America
Published on 31. October 2023
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-0-8165-5087-6 (ISBN)
Description
Challenging traditional and long-standing understandings, this volume provides an important new lens for interpreting stone structures that had previously been attributed to settler colonialism. Instead, the contributors to this volume argue that these locations are sacred Indigenous sites.
This volume introduces readers to eastern North America's Indigenous ceremonial stone landscapes (CSLs)--sacred sites whose principal identifying characteristics are built stone structures that cluster within specific physical landscapes. Our Hidden Landscapes presents these often unrecognized sites as significant cultural landscapes in need of protection and preservation.
In this book, Native American authors provide perspectives on the cultural meaning and significance of CSLs and their characteristics, while professional archaeologists and anthropologists provide a variety of approaches for better understanding, protecting, and preserving them. The chapters present overwhelming evidence in the form of oral tradition, historic documentation, ethnographies, and archaeological research that these important sites created and used by Indigenous peoples are deserving of protection.
This work enables archaeologists, historians, conservationists, foresters, and members of the general public to recognize these important ritual sites.
Contributors
Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling
Robert DeFosses
James Gage
Mary Gage
Doug Harris
Julia A. King
Lucianne Lavin
Johannes (Jannie) H. N. Loubser
Frederick W. Martin
Norman Muller
Charity Moore Norton
Paul A. Robinson
Laurie W. Rush
Scott M. Strickland
Elaine Thomas
Kathleen Patricia Thrane
Matthew Victor Weiss
This volume introduces readers to eastern North America's Indigenous ceremonial stone landscapes (CSLs)--sacred sites whose principal identifying characteristics are built stone structures that cluster within specific physical landscapes. Our Hidden Landscapes presents these often unrecognized sites as significant cultural landscapes in need of protection and preservation.
In this book, Native American authors provide perspectives on the cultural meaning and significance of CSLs and their characteristics, while professional archaeologists and anthropologists provide a variety of approaches for better understanding, protecting, and preserving them. The chapters present overwhelming evidence in the form of oral tradition, historic documentation, ethnographies, and archaeological research that these important sites created and used by Indigenous peoples are deserving of protection.
This work enables archaeologists, historians, conservationists, foresters, and members of the general public to recognize these important ritual sites.
Contributors
Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling
Robert DeFosses
James Gage
Mary Gage
Doug Harris
Julia A. King
Lucianne Lavin
Johannes (Jannie) H. N. Loubser
Frederick W. Martin
Norman Muller
Charity Moore Norton
Paul A. Robinson
Laurie W. Rush
Scott M. Strickland
Elaine Thomas
Kathleen Patricia Thrane
Matthew Victor Weiss
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Tucson
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
90 b&w illustrations, 36 maps, 6 tables
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8165-5087-6 (9780816550876)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Lucianne Lavin | Elaine Thomas
Our Hidden Landscapes
Indigenous Stone Ceremonial Sites in Eastern North America
Book
03/2025
University of Arizona Press
€40.50
Shipment within 10-20 days
Persons
Lucianne Lavin is an archaeologist, a director emeritus of research and collections at the Institute for American Indian Studies Museum in Connecticut, and the author of Connecticut's Indigenous Peoples.
Elaine Thomas is a Mohegan tribal member and has worked in the Mohegan Tribal Government for twenty-two years. She works with tribal nations in identifying and preserving ceremonial stone landscapes.
Elaine Thomas is a Mohegan tribal member and has worked in the Mohegan Tribal Government for twenty-two years. She works with tribal nations in identifying and preserving ceremonial stone landscapes.
Content
Contents
Foreword by Laurie Weinstein
Introduction-Lucianne Lavin and Elaine Thomas
Part I. Indigenous Perspectives on the Meaning and Significance of Ceremonial Stone Landscapes
1. When the Landscape Speaks for Itself, What Do We Learn?-Doug Harris
2. Markings of Ancestral Pathways: A Native Perspective-Elaine Thomas
3. Unseen Borders and Ways of Knowing: Northeastern Algonquian Sacred Lands-Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling
Part II. Academic Perspectives on Understanding, Protecting, and Preserving Indigenous Ceremonial Stone Landscapes
4. Obligations of Place: Engaging with Tribal Historic Preservation Offices in New England to Preserve and Protect Ceremonial Stone Landscapes-Paul A. Robinson
5. "So You Believe in Aliens, Too?" An Anthropologist Looks at Stone Features in the North American Northeast and the Archaeologists Who Do and Do Not Study Them-Laurie W. Rush
6. Introduction to Stone Removal and Disposal Practices in Agriculture and Farming-James E. Gage
7. Ceremonial Landscapes in the Chesapeake-Julia A. King and Scott M. Strickland
8. Stones and Their Places: An Application of Landscape Theory to Ceremonial Stone Landscapes of West Virginia-Matthew Victor Weiss and Charity Moore Norton
9. Piled Stone Features of Jackson County, Georgia-Johannes H. N. Loubser
Part III. Case Studies of Ceremonial Stone Landscapes
10. A Sacred Space on a Hilltop in Harwinton, Connecticut-Robert DeFosses
11. Interpreting Row-Linked Boulder Sites from Georgia to New England-Norman Muller
12. Historic Ceremonial Structures-Mary Gage
13. A Theoretical Model of the Moon and the Milky Way at Ancient Meeting Places-Frederick W. Martin
14. Mythologies of Light and Cast Shadow Within Northeastern Stone Chambers-Kathleen Patricia Thrane
Contributors
Index
Contents
Foreword by Laurie Weinstein
Introduction-Lucianne Lavin and Elaine Thomas
Part I. Indigenous Perspectives on the Meaning and Significance of Ceremonial Stone Landscapes
1. When the Landscape Speaks for Itself, What Do We Learn?-Doug Harris
2. Markings of Ancestral Pathways: A Native Perspective-Elaine Thomas
3. Unseen Borders and Ways of Knowing: Northeastern Algonquian Sacred Lands-Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling
Part II. Academic Perspectives on Understanding, Protecting, and Preserving Indigenous Ceremonial Stone Landscapes
4. Obligations of Place: Engaging with Tribal Historic Preservation Offices in New England to Preserve and Protect Ceremonial Stone Landscapes-Paul A. Robinson
5. "So You Believe in Aliens, Too?" An Anthropologist Looks at Stone Features in the North American Northeast and the Archaeologists Who Do and Do Not Study Them-Laurie W. Rush
6. Introduction to Stone Removal and Disposal Practices in Agriculture and Farming-James E. Gage
7. Ceremonial Landscapes in the Chesapeake-Julia A. King and Scott M. Strickland
8. Stones and Their Places: An Application of Landscape Theory to Ceremonial Stone Landscapes of West Virginia-Matthew Victor Weiss and Charity Moore Norton
9. Piled Stone Features of Jackson County, Georgia-Johannes H. N. Loubser
Part III. Case Studies of Ceremonial Stone Landscapes
10. A Sacred Space on a Hilltop in Harwinton, Connecticut-Robert DeFosses
11. Interpreting Row-Linked Boulder Sites from Georgia to New England-Norman Muller
12. Historic Ceremonial Structures-Mary Gage
13. A Theoretical Model of the Moon and the Milky Way at Ancient Meeting Places-Frederick W. Martin
14. Mythologies of Light and Cast Shadow Within Northeastern Stone Chambers-Kathleen Patricia Thrane
Contributors
Index
Contents