Continuity and Change in the Native American Village: Multicultural Origins and Descendants of the Fort Ancient Culture

Two common questions asked in archaeological investigations are: where did a particular culture come from, and which living cultures is it related to? In this book, Robert A. Cook brings a theoretically and methodologically holistic perspective to his study on the origins and continuity of Native American villages in the North American Midcontinent. He shows that to affiliate archaeological remains with descendant communities fully we need to unaffiliate some of our well-established archaeological constructs. Cook demonstrates how and why Native American villages formed and responded to events such as migration, environment and agricultural developments. He focuses on the big picture of cultural relatedness over broad regions and the amount of social detail that can be gleaned from archaeological and biological data, as well as oral histories.

Robert A. Cook is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Ohio State University and has been actively engaged in archaeological research for twenty-five years. He is an active member of several professional organizations, including the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association, the Midwest Archaeology Conference and the Southeast Archaeology Conference, which he has served in a variety of capacities. He received Ohio State University's Mentoring of Undergraduate Research Award, and twice received the Scholarly Accomplishment Award. He has authored dozens of journal articles and book chapters and is the author of SunWatch: Fort Ancient Development in the Mississippian World (2008). His research has also been featured in various newspapers and magazines.