Content area
Full Text
The Transformation of the Southeastern Indians, 1540-1760. Edited by Robbie Ethridge and Charles Hudson. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002. Pp. xxxix, 369. Preface, introduction, notes, bibliography, contributors, index. $50.00.)
Scholarly efforts to trace the origins of southern distinctiveness have tended to overlook one of the most dynamic and formative periods in the region's history: the era from the mid-sixteenth through mid-eighteenth centuries. This period was one of critical importance to the hundreds of evolving Indian societies that stretched from Chesapeake Bay to East Texas, as well as to the Spanish, French, and English colonial regimes that competed for control of that broad portion of North America. While a dearth of accessible historical sources has tended to discourage scholars from delving into the details of this era, Charles Hudson-the eminent anthropologist best known for his work on Mississippian chiefdoms and the Hernando de Soto expedition-knows as much as anyone about the merits of rising to such a challenge. In 1998, Hudson drew together a group of his colleagues and former students for a symposium dedicated to the myriad social, political, economic, and...
