Andrea Palmiotto was recently awarded a post-PhD research grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. The Wenner-Gren Foundation is a private foundation and dedicated leader in anthropological research, guided by its mission to advance anthropological knowledge, build sustainable careers, and amplify the impact of anthropology within the wider world.
Approximately 17 percent of applications are funded each cycle, with awards up to $25,000. The Foundation is particularly interested in research that furthers our understanding of what it means to be human while fostering inclusivity.
Palmiotto is working with a team of collaborators from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Heritage Trust, Muscogee Nation, and Catawba Nation to explore social prescriptions and communal learning in the production of ancient bone tools on the South Carolina coast between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago.
During this time, Indigenous groups constructed large, raised deposits, predominantly using oyster, whelk, clam, and other marine shells, along the coast. These constructions are often ring or arcuate shapes, and their purpose is a mystery today. Many archaeologists argue that these sites may have represented villages or ceremonial centers. Fig Island, one of three sites included in the team’s research sample, is a good example of these large and elaborate coastal shell ring sites.
Stone is uncommon in these areas, so instead of stone tools (which are more common in inland areas), occupants of these sites created tools out of bones and shells to support their daily lives. Many of these tools were elaborately carved and decorated, attesting to their value beyond simple utilitarian uses.
The team’s research will identify the animals used to create bone tools, including pins, needles, awls, and other implements, and explore the social significance of these animals and their role within society. Many Indigenous ontologies have long recognized animals as sentient beings with their own goals and motivations, an idea only recently embraced in Western forms of knowledge. Palmiotto’s team is interested in exploring these human-animal relationships in the past and determining whether the same types of animals were consistently used to make specific types of tools across time and space.
Since time immemorial, tribes inhabited, protected, and preserved these lands until their forcible removal from their homelands. In this research, we acknowledge their histories and the connections that they maintain to these areas. The archaeological sites included in this research are located on the ancestral homelands of more than 23 federal tribes and numerous state tribes and groups who retain strong cultural ties to the region today. We acknowledge that these preserves were founded upon the exclusion and erasure of many Indigenous peoples. This acknowledgment demonstrates the commitment to continue the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacy of settler colonialism.