THE CULTURE PROBLEM IN OHIO ARCHAEOLOGY BY H. C. SHETRONE
THE archaeological area corresponding to the State of Ohio 1 is of particular interest and importance, from the fact that within its confines the great mound-building cultures of the Ohio and upper Mississippi valleys reached their highest de- velopment. At the same time, it presents a problem in prehistoric cultural distinctions and affinities which, owing to the complexity of its archaeology and the lack of ethnologic and historic evidence, is unusually difficult of solution.
The ideal anthropological area, in its simplest form, might be defined as one in which a surviving element of its prehistoric popu- lation can be definitely identified, through its ethnology and history, with the archaeological remains for which it is responsible. The Iroquois territory of New York state may be cited as approaching such an ideal area, since those groups of the Six Nations representing the prehistoric Iroquoian inhabitants are, in this manner, directly coordinated with the habitation sites of their early occupancy. Furthermore, the related Erie, while early disappearing from the area, left behind them historical evidence sufficient to identify their archaeological remains; and, finally, as a result of elimination, the prehistoric evidences of more remote Algonquian occupancy of the same region are differentiated from the preceding groups.
1 The designations "Ohio archaeological area" and "native Ohio tribes" are here employed with a full realization of their inadequacy to express the exact meaning intended. The first-named term, used merely as a matter of convenience, seems justified by the fact that the two more important culture groups of the suggested area lie almost wholly within the state, although in reality such an area would embrace parts of those states immediately adjacent to Ohio.
With reference to a native Ohio tribe, it is obvious that the more or less nomadic habits of the American aborigine would tend to make his residence within a given locality of rather uncertain duration. In this paper the term is intended to represent those tribes who were resident or present within the area prior to historic record, and who were responsible for the archaeological remains thereof.
Use of the abstract noun, culture, to designate a specific social group, will be understood as a convenient abbreviation of culture group, or culture variety.
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