Ritualistic Earth Renewal

R. Clark Mallam discusses the Wisconsin effigy mounds and their intimate relationship with ritualistic practices that were a major part of Native American culture.  After consulting Geertz definition of religion, many of the rituals Mallam describes in Indian Mounds of Wisconsin promote a “general order of existence”.  These rituals, Mallam theorizes, were made in order to “maintain a balance and harmony with the natural world (Birmingham 113). He further reasons that effigy mounds, therefore, were important settings for spiritual renewal.  Based on evidence of symbolic offerings at ritual burials, diversity of effigy mound shapes, Native American effigy building is reflective of Geertz’s definition.

Burials underneath effigy mounds consisted of symbolic offerings including “colored soils, mucks, charcoal and ash” (Birmingham 127). These offering are a continuation of older traditions of earth renewal ceremonialism. The preservation of identity through these practices is a major part of Geertz’s definition of religion. Another critical feature of Native American effigy builders is their seeking to balance the world around them by constructing the mounds. In water-logged eastern Wisconsin the water spirit effigy mounds were offset with an air spirit, and vice versa in the western part of the state. The central area of the state had a mix of all three domains (sea, air and land). This this practice of seeking to define the world around themselves through the supernatural fulfills the Geertz definition.

The Late Woodland period saw much development of religious practices given the reliance on farmed sustenance and reliance on groups of at most 100 to travel between seasonal camps. Effigy mounds were built places of abundance of resource (Birmingham 113). I think it is interesting that Mallam proposes that Native Americans sought physical renewal at the effigy mounds as well as spiritual renewal. Their effigy mound building is a symbolic system like Geertz’s definition describes.