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The Transformation of the Southeastern Indians, 1540-1760. Edited by Robbie Ethridge and Charles Hudson. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, c. 2002. Pp. [xl], 369. $50.00, ISBN 1-57806-351-5.)
The scholarly study of southeastern Indians has reached an exciting new level in the past decade. Anthropologists, historians, and other writers are putting forth new ideas and interpretations that promise to revolutionixe our understanding of southern Indians and early southern history. Recent works by James Taylor Carson, Alan Gallay, Patricia K. Galloway, LeAnne Howe, Greg O'Brien, Theda Perdue, Claudio Saunt, Daniel H. Usner Jr., and others have pushed southeastern Indian studies to the forefront of ethnohistory, American Indian studies, and early southern history. Old paradigms are being challenged, new sources are being found or old ones examined anew, interconnections are being discovered, and a whole slew of young scholars have chosen southeastern Indians as their topic of inquiry. The future of the field looks very bright, and The Transformation of the Southeastern Indians adds to this perception.
This collection of essays resulted from a 1998 symposium held at the University of Mississippi, where co-editor Robbie Ethridge is a professor of anthropology. The book focuses on a time period in southern history, sometimes referred to as the...