PEOPLE: The term “people” as used in this paper does not refer to a physical type but simply to cultural groups unless specifically stated to the contrary.
PERIOD: Unless otherwise specifically stated, the word applies to a cultural level regardless of time and place.
PHASE: The major division of the [pattern] as used in the McKern Classification System.
PLANT-RAISING: The [economy] or cultural [status] of a cultural group who grew food (and fibre) plants but were without domesticated food-draft animals.
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION: A formalized social means of controlling the members of a nation or tribe and compelling compliance with established customs or laws with defined customary or lawful penalties for violations together with the machinery for determining equity, rights, or damages in non-criminal disputes through governmental agencies such as officers (chiefs) and official bodies (councils) regularly selected for these purposes.
POLISHING: A process by which the surface of a ground [stone] artifact was brought to a high degree of smoothness and gloss by rubbing with fine earth and water. It is readily distinguishable from polish due to wear in digging.
PRIEST: Any person selected in a regular and customary manner for religious office who by virtue of installation into that office and acceptance of the duties is (believed to be) invested with the power to communicate and intercede with members of the spirit world, a god or gods or in certain instances to act for them on behalf of his group.
PRIMITIVE PEOPLE: Refers to any [people] in the [Self-Domestication] [Stage] and to the simple plant-growers of the Farming [Period].
PROTOCULTURAL: A [stage] presumed to have existed prior to man’s discovery of the principle of conchoidal fracturing of [flint], when he used native sticks and stones as tools, and sometimes by haphazard breaking of these secured new forms more suitable for his purposes.
PROTOMISS: An abbreviated form for Protomississippi, the earliest known [subculture] of the Middle ([Mississippi]) [Phase] in southwestern Illinois. Dillinger is the type site.