Wow! This is very interesting....thanks for answering. A lot can be learned about any people from their ways of eating and drinking, place of sleeping and rest, and security factors......just like Maslow has taught in his Hierarchy of Needs. Works for hunting wild pray, and seems to tie into finding ancestors, wouldn't you say? TT ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 11:24 PM Subject: [CREEK-SOUTHEAST] Height of Pre-European Muskogeans > Perhaps I should explain something, that few people seem to understand. > Many pre-European contact Muskogean towns were communal. Evidently, the > Oconee's > were not communal, since they primarily lived on isolated farmsteads. > The > closest thing we have in our era to a Muskogean town of 1500 is as > Israeli > kibutz or a Cuban communal farm. When people caught fish, the fish were > either > given only to the elite, or equally distributed among everyone in an > extended family, clan or town. Orataw (those who make things happen) > distributed > the food. Such prestige foods as venison and bear meat, might only go to > warriors, with the scraps and less desirable pieces being distributed to > others. > > The height varied with altitude and latitude. The Spanish did not say > much > about the peoples in Florida, so perhaps they were about the same height > as > the Spanish and Mexican Indians. However, de Soto's men were astounded by > the > size of the ancestors of the Creek men living in Middle Georgia, South > Carolina and the Southern Highlands. They averaged a foot taller than the > Spanish. Elite leaders might reach 7 feet tall. Mikko Taski Loosa > (Black Warrior) > of the Alabama's was seven feet tall. Was he actually a man from one of > the > taller ethnic groups in Africa? Good question. There was a Creek mikko > in > Georgia during the Revolution, who was 7 feet tall. The Spanish > mentioned that > Muskogean women in the Coastal Plain were much shorter than the men. The > women farther north and higher up tended to be taller. > > Skeletons have been found in other parts of the South which appeared to be > of men 7 feet tall. George Washington found an Indian cemetery filled > with 7 > feet tall skeletons when he was supervising the construction of Fort > Loudon in > Winchester, VA. It could be that the original elite of the Creek's > ancestors were actually another ethnic group, which came to dominate the > indigenous > peoples. The Choctaws have a legend of wars in the ancient past between > the > Choctaws and a race of giants, who invaded from the north. > > The difference in height between geographical regions and gender may also > be > reflective of a difference in diet - the elite and warriors may have > enjoyed > high protein diets, while the commoners, especially women, got very little > meat. Also, intestinal parasites, may have been much more severe in > coastal > areas where it rarely went below freezing in the winter. > > There are a lot of unanswered questions in this area. > > Richard T. > > > > > > **************Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your > budget? > Read reviews on AOL Autos. > (http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 > ) > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >