Intimate Landscapes: The Social Nature of the Spaces Between

Abstract

Domestic structures at Parchman Place are characterized by rectangular magnetic anomalies of high value, surrounded by haloes of low magnetic value. Site-wide magnetic gradiometer survey reveals discrete clusters of these anomalies, indicating the presence of at least three residential groups or neighbourhoods. However, the empty spaces on the map, the magnetically clean areas bounded by architecture, are also important for structuring daily interactions among individuals and groups. This paper explores the spaces between geophysical anomalies - the intimate landscapes of courtyards, plazas and paths that are common yet rarely investigated spatial components of Mississippi Period (ad 1000-1541) sites in the southeastern USA. Magnetic gradiometer data from Parchman illustrate how attributes of empty spaces - size, shape, orientation, visibility and proximity to other features - promoted different types of social interaction in the past. These data, supplemented by traditional archaeological data, indicate that early in the site's history, the focus of community members was inward - at the neighbourhood level toward courtyards and the lineages associated with them, and at the site level toward the central plaza and other social groups living at the site. Later, at least some community members became oriented away from the rest of the community and toward monumental architecture instead. As a result of this reorientation, many people were excluded from participating in mound-top activities. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.