Socioeconomic Implications of Prehistoric Textile Production in the Eastern Woodlands

Abstract

ABSTRACTQuantitative measures of time and effort as well as assessment of the knowledge base required in each level of textile manufacture (i.e., plant collecting, fiber processing, yarn and fabric formation) result in cost estimates that indicate differences between simply structured materials and complexly structured elaborate materials. These measures were applied to two textiles from a Wilbanks phase (A.D. 950 to 1440) [1] burial of a high status individual from Mound C at Etowah, Georgia [2]. Socioeconomic implications inferred from the resulting analyses include the proposal of craft specialization in the production of complex textiles and of the significance of these complex textiles to Mississippian chiefdoms.