| During the Mississippian Period, the Dallas (A.D. 1300-1600) and Mouse Creek phases (A.D. 1400-1600) contained sociopolitical differences. Within the Dallas and Mouse Creek Phases sites there has been a distinct lack of gender and life course studies. This study assesses the presence of grave goods at nine sites, which are divided into two archaeological phases: Dallas and Mouse Creek, in the Chickamauga Basin of east Tennessee during the Mississippian Period (A. D. 900-1500).;To evaluate gender, analysis requires a biological sex to be assigned to skeletons. This study used sex estimation methods of sectioning points for maximum humeral head and vertical femoral head diameter, and discriminant functions for the capitate, second metacarpal, capitate, and calcaneus. Also, the concordance rate (rate of agreement) between the results of these methods and traditional discriminators of osteological sex was used to determine their reliability.;Results from the sex estimation found the maximum humeral head and vertical femoral head diameter is the most useful. In addition, the results of the grave good analysis indicate differences between the Dallas and Mouse Creek phases with how gender and age was conceptualized. |
