Tony Boudreaux (Faculty Member is Retired, or has otherwise left the University)
Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
Phone Number:
Email: tboud@olemiss.edu
http://socanth.olemiss.edu/category/anthropology-faculty/

Key Words: Anthropology, archaeology, Native Americans, mounds, earthworks

Research Description: Much of my work has focused on late pre-Contact and Contact period Native American societies of the southeastern United States, especially complex societies of the Mississippian and Late Woodland periods. I am interested in what public and domestic architectural differences can tell us about ancient communities and how social groups interacted to create and maintain communities that persisted for long periods of time. Investigating the construction, use, and evolution of public architecture—especially in the form of earthen monuments such as platform mounds—has been particularly important in my work. Methodologically, my research has involved the use of ceramic, architectural, and mortuary datasets. GIS has provided an invaluable set of analytical tools for organizing these data, and I anticipate that GIS will continue to figure prominently in my research. Although I have little direct experience with remote-sensing applications, I am impressed by their extraordinary potential, and, I look forward to learning about and applying the remote-sensing resources of the Center for Archaeological Research. Since arriving at the University of Mississippi, I have been doing fieldwork at a Native American site from the mid-1500s that represents a community of people who were dealing with the initial effects of Contact with Europeans and colonialism. This project has been a collaboration with colleagues from the Chickasaw Nation, University of Florida, and University of South Carolina. I also have done limited fieldwork at Rowan Oak in support of UM's Slavery Research Group. Recently, I have been collaborating with colleagues to investigate sexual harassment and its effects in in Southeastern archaeology. Much of my previous research focused on the Town Creek site, a Mississippian civic-ceremonial center in central North Carolina. I also have worked in coastal Mississippi at Jackson Landing, an early Late Woodland (A.D. 400-700) site whose public architecture includes a massive earthwork and a platform mound.

Honors Theses:

Steeno, Gillian (2021) Comparing Lithic Artifacts and Native American Activity at Stark Farm, an Early Contact Period Site in Northeast Mississippi (full text)

Kitchens, Arianna Faith (2019) Archaeological Investigations at Rowan Oak: Searching for Evidence of Antebellum Slavery (full text)