Dan,
 
I'm not sure that Chris' response was necessarily a "feel-good" conclusion
so much as a more refined, "interesting question."  The next step would
be to go out and try to confirm or deny his suggested interpretation
through ethnography and ethnohistoric research.  The former would be
particularly easy here.  I don't think post-modern archaeologists screw up
so much in asking these kinds of questions, but in not going far enough to
answer them.  Obviously, archaeology alone has its limitations.
 
The whole resistance and re-appropriation of symbols also got me thinking
about my dad, a PTSS Vietnam Vet.  He and his buddies wore their dog-tags
well into the eighties, while spitting venom at the U.S. govt. and military
that betrayed them.  What does that mean?
 
-- Shannon Dawdy