In David La Vera’s (2007) book Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut’s Tomb he discusses the history of Spiro mounds in both ancient and modern times. Throughout his analysis of Spiro’s history La Vera describes the culture of Spiro’s ancient inhabitants, and the cultural clash that began at Spiro between professional archaeologists and grave robbers- or “pot hunters” as they were fondly called. Through these description La Vera is able to show how culture affects the relationships that are formed in and between groups and how it almost lead to the near complete destruction of Spiro mounds, still considered to be one of the greatest archaeological tragedies in America’s history to date. Due to this travesty Looting Spiro Mounds shows …show more content…
As humans spread into North America and across the Great Plains these groups relied heavily on “the efficient hunting bands of fathers, sons, and brothers” (La Vera 20) to provide food for the whole group in order to survive. As the culture changed however and the large animals normally hunted by these groups died out the gardens planted by mothers and daughters began to become more important as the culture of Spiro began to move away from a foraging society to an agricultural society(La Vera 23). As the Culture of Spiro developed many different aspects of the society began to change and develop besides the way in which food was gathered, including the way in which the people of a group interacted with each other, and social divisions began to develop between the ‘commoners’ and the ‘elites’ of the society. These social divisions included different health standards for the different classes of Spiroans with the nobility of Spiro seeming to live longer and healthier lives than the commoners. This most likely was do in part to the differing diets of the nobility and the commoners in Spiro’s society (La Vera 58). The social divisions of Spiro also affected the way the classes dressed “commoners rarely wore jewelry because that was a privilege reserved for the nobility” (La Vera 60). The way in which a person was buried also …show more content…
There are many examples of this in the book in both modern and ancient times. When Spiro Mounds was first excavated by ‘pot hunters’ in the 1930’s tensions between the ‘pot hunters’ and professional archaeologists increased. Specifically between an Archaeologist named Clements and a group known as the Pocola Mining Company (La Vera). Clements believed that only professional archaeologists should be allowed to excavate Indian sites(La Vera 12), while the men of the Pocola Mining company saw excavating Indian sites as a good way to make money during the Great depression(La Vera 53). These were two separate outlooks while different were still part of the same culture that allowed for ‘pot hunters’ to continue their work. Clements was just apart of a group that wanted to change this culture while the Pocola Mining Company was a part of the most accepted viewpoint on the subject. Causing the two groups to but heads over the issue on several occasions one of which almost lead to the complete destruction of the site and loss of vast amounts of knowledge about the ancient citizens of Spiro. These events were the result of a cultural clash in which both sides were unwillingness to communicate with each other instead of trying to work out a