Mission Cemeteries, Mission Peoples: Historical and Evolutionary Dimensions of Intracemetery Bioarchaeology in Spanish Florida: CHRISTOPHER M. STOJANOWSKI

Christopher Stojanowski explores the world of Spanish Florida’s mission cemeteries in a personal and unique way in this book, while focusing on the questions of what determined the placements of graves within a burial ground, and the question of whether variation in the cemetery structures reflects larger societal issues. He draws on sophisticated mathematical techniques to explore the dynamics of burial placement and cemetery formation at the Spanish mission sites of San Pedro y San Pablo de Patale, San Martin de Timuca, Santa Catalina de Guale de Santa María (cemetery and ossuary), and the southern second cemetery near the previous mission on
Amelia Island. Stojanowski discusses in chapter 5 the identification of the mission associated with this southern cemetery and the tribal group who
lived there. These missions were established in the later part of the 16th and 17th centuries, with Spanish Franciscans seeking to convert the Native
Americans they encountered to Catholicism. These missions became a part of the Spaniard’s strategy to convert, civilize, and exploit as they sought to extract wealth from the area. The book covers three wide areas of the Florida coast that were home to the Guale, Apalchee, and Timucua language groups of Native Americans.