Pearls or People: A Biometric Analysis of Interregional Exchange During Hopewell Times

Abstract

The pattern of Hopewell site distribution throughout the midwest has given rise to several models of interaction during Middle Woodland times. Primary among these is the idea of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere (HIS), involving the movement of material items and ideological concepts but not groups of people. An analysis of biological distance between skeletal populations drawn from Ohio and Illinois Hopewell mortuary sites was done in order to test this interpretation. The pattern of biosocial interaction resulting from comparison of inherited osteological traits, both metric and non‐metric, supports such a model. The degree of heterogeneity between the two areas of Hopewell expression suggests little exchange was occurring on a biological level. The HIS as an interregional trade network composed of locally adapted, indigenous cultural groups appears to have reality in both the biological and material aspects of its archeological remains.