A lecture in the History Department's Race, Ethnicity, and Nation constellation speaker series, co-sponsored by Anthropology:
When Giants Walked the Earth: Chief Tascaluza and Leadership in the Ancient American South
By
Dr. Robbie Ethridge
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Mississippi
Chief Tascaluza, the grand cacique of the paramount chiefdom of Tascaluza in present-day central Alabama, was said to have been a giant of a man, both physically and politically. Hernando de Soto encountered Chief Tascaluza in 1541, and the chronicles of the expedition describe much about him and his polity. Here, anthropologist Robbie Ethridge probes the documentary and archaeological evidence for what it can tell us about Chief Tascaluza and the structures of hierarchical leadership during the late Mississippian Period at the time of European contact.
