The Effigy mounds of the ancient paleo-indians have sprouted up everywhere throughout Wisconsin. These mounds have taken the forms of many spiritual forms such as birds, and animals tide to the ground. This collections of mounds make up a variety of symbols. Geertz defines religion as "The definition again: A system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." The combination of this definition and existence of the effigy mounds signifies the presence of a religion somewhere within this culture.
From the symbols created out of these effigy mounds, it is quite apparent that it reflects a system of beliefs that these people had. First of all, they must create a long lasting mood because they are based on burial, the everlasting sleep. Whether to guide the people in the mounds only to the other side, or help them walk the plane of the dead, these symbols were created to form general order for the dead. along those lines, these symbols created by the mounds were not ordinary symbols either. They represented the mythical such as water monsters, and animals not tied to the earth. While some of the effigy mounds did represent the more earth tied, general animals, these animals probably had some significance already.
One thing about the effigy mounds that does reveal itself without the symbols is the size of each. This places more emphasis on the burials then if each was a single person of tradition person size. This also isolates the symbols as being more significant. If a symbol is worthy enough to be made out of thousands of dead people, the significance of it will tie to the spiritual meaning of the burial and the physical representation of the burial. Thus, each symbol is exemplified by the sheer size and meaning of the these effigy mounds.
The last thing i can say about these symbols in relationship to the effigy mounds, is that i doubt that the effigy mounds define the symbols, but the symbols define the effigy mounds. These great representations of animals or significant beings isolate the effigy mounds as something significant. Thus the symbols take a role in the burial rituals. From that, it is the symbols that help define the culture, providing the structure and general order to the culture.
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I agree with your comment about how symbols, under which people are buried, offer some significance to how Native Americans once offered meaning to the effigy mounds. But be careful when saying about why people are buried under certain symbols. The shear idea of death as an everlasting time after life might be false - they might reappear or transit as spirits into another type of 'life' elsewhere. The "returning to earth" is simple enough to establish harmony between life, death, humans, and earth; all under layered heaps of dirt, of course. The animal signs (much like horoscope symbols, except correlating to the land and not birth-months) bond all those things to culture and a collective consensus/ agreement about what would be best for the dead peoples ... May they rest in peace.
ReplyDeleteI'm not exactly sure how I feel about saying the symbols define the mounds.
ReplyDeleteNot all of the mounds were in a shape of an animal or a significant being. There were the conical mounds which were basically small hills. All of the mounds were created for a reason, I'm sure people didn't get together and say, "Hey! Let's build a mound for the fun of it!" But, there was indeed meaning behind the mounds. Also, not all of the burial mounds were not an effigy mound (see chap 3).
I think there was much more to an effigy mound than the symbolistic representation, by the shape. I think the mounds represented a culture, a religion, if you will, that has long passed. The mounds represented a time where Native Americans could get together and express their beliefs. A place where people could gather and portray in some amount what their lives were about. So, the mounds were much more than symbols defined by the shape(effigy mounds).