While the early cultural clashes between Native Americans and Europeans have long engaged scholars, far less attention has been paid to interactions among indigenous peoples themselves prior to the contact period. The essays in this volume, derived largely from the 1992 meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, mark a major step in correcting that imbalance.

Long before Europeans sailed west in search of the East, Native Americans of various ethnic groups were encountering each other and interacting socially, both amicably and otherwise. Over the course of ten thousand years - from Paleoindian to Mississippian times - these interactions had a profound effect on the historical development of these societies and their material culture, social relations, and institutions of integration.

In probing such encounters, the contributors reject reductive models and instead combine a variety of theoretical orientations - including world systems theory, Marxist analysis, and ecosystems approaches - with empirical evidence from the archaeological record.