Changing Patterns of Native American Trade in the Middle Atlantic Region and Chesapeake Watershed: A World Systems Perspective

Abstract

Types of trade and trends in the movement of material goods within the Middle Atlantic Region and with adjacent regions is summarized beginning ca 2500 BC. The timing of cycles of trade and the social and cultural developments that may be linked to them are compared with developments in adjacent regions. While it is clear that native peoples of the Middle Atlantic and Chesapeake areas are interacting with their contemporaries in other geographic areas, trends in trade and socio-cultural developments are not synchronous. The world systems of the Chesapeake and Middle Atlantic Region after 2500 BC are relatively small and somewhat insular, at least in comparison with those of the Midwest and Southeast. Although there is evidence of interaction with cultures and societies in adjacent regions, this interaction is not systemic, especially as regards trade. No core-periphery differentiation appears to exist. There is no clear archaeological evidence of more economically and socially developed cultures dominating or exploiting less developed ones intra-regionally or inter-regionally prior to the time of Native-European contact.