The Invention of the Creek Nation, 1670-1763
Drawing on archaeological evidence and often-neglected Spanish source material, The Invention of the Creek Nation, 1670-1763 explores the political history of the Creek Indians of Georgia and Alabama and the emergence of the Creek Nation during the colonial era in the American Southeast. In part a study of Creek foreign relations, this book examines the creation and application of the "neutrality" policy-defined here as the Coweta Resolution of 1718-for which the Creeks have long been famous, in an era marked by the imperial struggle for the American South. Also a study of the culture of internal Creek politics, this work shows the persistence of a "traditional" kinship-based political system in which town and clan affiliation remained supremely important. These traditions, coupled with political intrusions by the region's three European powers, promoted the spread of Creek factionalism and mitigated the development of a regional Creek Confederacy. But while traditions endured, the struggle to maintain territorial integrity against Britain also promoted political innovation. In this context the territorially defined Creek Nation emerged as a legal concept in the era of the French and Indian War, as imperial policies of an earlier era gave way to the territorial politics that marked the beginning of a new one.
Apalachee: The Land between the Rivers
John Hann focuses in this study on the Apalachee Indians and their interactions with the Spanish during the historic period.Following a description of the prehistoric Apalachee, Hann delves into the encounters between the Apalachee and the first European intruders. He synthesizes historical and archaeological information on the establishment and growth of the western Florida missions, including pertinent data from the prominent and pivotal state of San Luis de Talimali. A sympathetic view of the culture and customs of the historic Apalachee and a translation of Father Paiva's impassioned ball game manuscript are followed by sections on Apalachee political structure, language, demographic trends, and mission economy. Hann concludes with data on the demoralization of the Apalachee and its effects on the missions and, ultimately, on the exile and extinction of the Apalachee people.
The Provincial Centre at Camulodunum: Towards an Historical Context
Present assessment of the provincial enclosure at Camulodunum, more particularly how far it can be compared to the standard picture of similar centres elsewhere, is inevitably constrained by the limited evidence at our disposal. With no numismatic sources to draw on and in the absence of a single record of the provincial priesthood — a striking void that calls for comment — documentary testimony is restricted to what can be made of two passages in the literary authorities. The first, a notorious sneer in Seneca's Apocolocyntosis (VIII.3), tells only that a temple of some sort was associated somehow with the emperor Claudius. The second text, an obscure allusion in Tacitus, is at first sight no more enlightening but, on closer analysis, the phrase templum Divo Claudio constitutum (Ann. xiv.31) yields the invaluable inference that the temple was to the deified, not the living Claudius; in which case construction must have been begun in a.d. 54 or later. Archaeological data throw no light on the origins of the temple or of the precinct in which it stood but exploration has steadily enlarged our knowledge of the site itself, and understanding of the remains has now reached the stage at which, for all its puzzling lacunae, the centre is as well known in some ways as the triple-tiered complex at Tarraco, the provincial enclave of Hispania Citerior. We have arrived at the point where the British sanctuary and its counterparts on the Continent can be mutually illuminating.