Real Mound Builders of North America

A. Martin Byers (1937-2021) was professor emeritus at Vanier College and research associate at McGill University in the Department of Anthropology.

• Chapter 1. Alternate Views of the Prehistoric Mound Builders of the Eastern Woodlands of North AmericaChapter 2. The Warranting Imperative and Sacred BundlesChapter 3. The First Order Ohio Hopewellian Ceremonial Sphere and the Ross County, Ohio, InterfaceChapter 4. The Second Order Hopewellian Ceremonial Sphere: Illinois-Havana and Indiana-Crab OrchardChapter 5. The Late Prehistoric Period and the Dual Communal Heterarchy/Cult Sodality Heterarchy ModelChapter 6. The Vacant Quarters and the Transition to the Post-Mississippian Era Late Prehistoric Period: An Empirical DemonstrationChapter 7. The Late Prehistoric and Post-Mississippian Era Late Prehistoric Period: Communal Heterarchies of the Eastern Woodlands

In what may be the most accessible introduction to his thinking, this posthumous volume from Martin Byers summarizes his views on the nature of the social systems behind the earthwork and mound centers of eastern North America. Addressing the same archaeologically-revealed Middle Woodland and Mississippian landscapes as those who view them as the product of competitive and territorial hierarchically-organized societies, he tells us in a brilliant exposition why he believes those same groups were communal and custodial heterarchies.