Wayne Van Horne

Previous researchers have extended the range of
the American bison (Bison bison) to include the state of
Georgia, yet there have not been any verifiable osteological
remains of bison found at archaeological sites in the state.
A critical examination of the data used to establish this
range demonstrates that much of it is based on unsubstantiated historical accounts, toponyms that were believed to be evidence of the historical occurrence of bison, and unverifiable nineteenth-century accounts of osteological evidence. Credible accounts indicate that the Spanish did not find any evidence of bison in Georgia in the sixteenth century,
but by the early eighteenth century bison had migrated into
an area of South Carolina adjacent to the upper Savannah
River and into the lower Chattahoochee River basin.
Eighteenth-century British settlers also reported buffalo in
the Coastal Plain, but evidence suggests they may have mistaken feral Spanish cattle for bison. This assessment of the
evidence indicates that bison did not range into Georgia
until the late seventeenth century, possibly due to reduced
predation by hunters after the demographic collapse of Mississippian societies. They were therefore only present in the
upper Savannah River and lower Chattahoochee River basins
for a brief period of time.

Ethnohistorical and archeological data, including
historical descriptions of warclubs and warclub use,
ethnographic reports, Southeastern myths, Mississippian
iconography, skeletal fractures of Mississippian burials,
and archaeological specimens of warclubs are analyzed in
order to determine the significance of warclubs in
Mississippian and early historic Southeastern Indian
societies. Warclub types and techniques of use are
examined, and evidence of their use as a symbol of the
status of Mississippian military elites and chiefs is
presented. The warclub is also analyzed as a symbol in
Southeastern cosmology, especially of the Thunder deity,
which was used to symbolize the status and cosmological
authority of warriors and chiefs. Persistence into the
historic period of the symbolic use of warclubs in the Green
Corn Ceremony, the ball game, and the Redstick uprising, as
well as their use in warfare, is examined. A synthesis of
this data supports the view that Mississippian warfare was
fueled by competition for status within societies, that
warclubs were the primary symbol of warfare and the
cosmologically sanctioned status of the warrior, and that
they symbolized the cosmologically charted role of the
warrior to compete for status and participate in warfare.

Comparative ethnohistorical research demonstrates that religious-military orders in feudal  societies in diverse regions shared a common developmental and organizational pattern.  The genesis of these orders occurred in feudal societies which lacked standing armies and were subjected to major external military threats impinging on territory of significance to a religious group.  After forming, these orders were subsequently given support by political elites and developed administrative bureaucracies, standing armies, self-supporting economic bases, and regional financial systems which supported their activities.  These financial systems ultimately facilitated regional economic exchange.  The power and wealth of each of these orders eventually led to conflict with political elites and they were abolished.  This pattern existed for orders in Japan, Europe, and Islamic North Africa and the Middle East.  In the European case the regional economic and financial system created by the Templars can be viewed as a possible precursor to the development of financial institutions in the formation of the world economic system.

This paper provides an examination of the numerous similarities found among military religious orders in three separate cultures; the Murabitun of the Maghreb, the Sohei of Japan and the Templars of Europe and the Middle East.  These religious military orders have more than a superficial resemblance to one another and may provide an important key to understanding the evolution of feudal and peasant tribal societies into pre-modern states.  The societies in which they existed faced similar military, political and economic problems.  The orders themselves were similar in overall structure, organization, and purpose.  Their similarities suggest that they represent a convergent evolution of a specific type of military institution in response to comparable problems and challenges that couldn’t be met by existing institutions.  Furthermore, once established, these orders developed into more complex institutions with a bureaucratic organization that influenced the course of regional politics, economics and the military.  These similarities are analyzed in the context of the process of the formation and development of these orders under similar political and social conditions and their resulting impact on the development of regional economic systems.