Hoyme and Bass] SKELETAL REMAINS 395 



of preservation, excavation, or sexing. The one explanation that 

 comes to mind is cultural. It is possible that in a subsistence economy, 

 men would be more highly valued because of their productivity than 

 women or children, whose role would more likely be that of consumers, 

 and whose main contribution would be to help carry home the catch 

 and cook it. If deaths occurred while groups were away from their 

 home base on extended hunting trips, the bodies of men, and particu- 

 larly the better hunters, are more likely to have been carried back for 

 burial than the bodies of women and children. These might have 

 been defleshed for ease in transportation if distances were great. 

 Nevertheless, there is the fact that knife marks are found on the bones 

 of both men and women at the Tollifero site. None of the accomits 

 of the early Southeastern Indians throw any light on the matter, so 

 any conclusions as to the cause of the apparent difference in popula- 

 tion composition must await further evidence. 



The Clarksville skeletons reveal evidence of other cultural dif- 

 ferences setting them apart from the Tollifero people : Three of the 

 later crania show cuts on the vault suggesting scalping, whereas such 

 marks were not seen on any of the Tollifero skulls. Burial practices 

 seem also to have midergone some modification. At the earlier site, 

 only a few of the bodies seem to have had the flesh removed before 

 burial : Some of these were buried shortly after cleaning while still 

 held together by ligaments; some were kept a while and eventually 

 interred as bundle burials with recently deceased individuals ; and at 

 least one seems to have been the guest of honor at a ceremony in which 

 his skull and bones were cracked open and the brains and marrow re- 

 moved, the bony remnants being placed in a pile in a pit and covered 

 with dirt and stones. Most of the bodies, however, were simply 

 buried, apparently without any further ado, although some were ac- 

 companied by shell or copper beads and turtle-shell rattles. On the 

 other hand, the Clarksville people seem to have cleaned all of the 

 bodies more or less thoroughly, probably when somewhat fresher, 

 judging by the greater severity of the markings on the bones. The 

 skeletons were buried shortly afterward, still articulated by liga- 

 ments and reclothed in their usual ornaments. Holes drilled into the 

 marrow cavities of some of the bones suggest that the marrow had 

 been sucked out. The change in the custom is difficult to interpret. 

 There is a certain logic in a seminomadic group removing the flesh 

 from the bodies of those people whose remains they wished to keep 

 with them, particularly if they were to be carried about, and eventually 

 interring them at a more or less permanent occupation site, along 

 with those who died there. Once the group became more settled, and 

 there was less necessity for keeping remains in the houses, or carrying 

 them about, one would expect the custom to fall into disuse : Instead, 



