Coastal chiefdoms and the question of agriculture: An ethnohistorical overview

56th Annual Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Pensacola, FL, 12 November 1999

1999

As has been aptly summarized by archaeologist David Hurst Thomas as "the Guale problem," considerable debate still exists regarding the degree to which the Indians of the Atlantic coastal zone north of St. Augustine could be characterized as sedentary agriculturalists, particularly when compared with interior groups. Influenced by early Jesuit letters, many researchers consider late-prehistoric coastal groups to have been severely limited in both agricultural productivity and settlement stability due to environmental constraints, though all groups clearly farmed during the later Franciscan mission period. This paper addresses the problem with a wide range of ethnohistorical data from eazly colonial sources.

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