The Animal Connection

In this post, I would like to focus on something that I had previously left out in my last entry but is quite important in when looking at the effigy mounds. The exact relationship between the woodlander peoples and animals remains unknown. However, it is evident from looking at the mounds, the shapes of the mounds, and the drawings that there was a very high value placed on the lives of animals, as well as their possible relationship with the afterlife. Arial views show the mound shapes of birds, rabbits and other 4 legged creatures. Obviously, the native peoples took great pride in building these mounds, as these burial sites(and whatever else they functioned as) took time and effort to construct, not to leave out that they were constructed in the shape of an animal…not your average mound shape. Taking a step back, we can draw two points from these mounds. First, bones have been found in them so it is quite possible that these were burial mounds (which I completely agree with) and second, a well known fact…they were built in the shape of an animal. From this, we can draw the connection between the dead and the animals. In my opinion, the dead were placed inside these creature shaped mounds for the symbolic meaning of the animals carrying them peacefully into and through the afterlife.  In early times, animals were treated as much more sacred beings than they are today, not quite as equals, but much different than today. When killed for food, often times there would be ceremonies following the hunt  and the skinning and gutting of the animal would become a village wide event. This testifies to the importance of the animals and the respect that the early peoples had for them. To conclude, I find it fascinating that the mounds were built in the shapes of animals, as it symbolizes the ultimate natural connection between man, animal, earth, and spirit.

Mind Body Earth Connection

To this day effigy mounds continue to evoke our curiosity. Questions remain about the basic fact of who built them, and why? While these questions remain somewhat un answered there are a few things about the ancient peoples that we know(or can assume in an educated way). In earlier times, in order to survive the Native Americans  “adapted to resource rich environments by developing new hunting and gathering strategies, as well as a number of technological innovations”. The Gertz definition states “Religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence”. To survive, native peoples had to adapt to their respective environments on objective level by doing necessary things to survive such as hunting and gathering, as well as inventing new appliances to make their daily lives easier. While we do not completely understand the spirituality of the natives, I have come to believe that If adaptation was a factor in one half of their lives(surviving) why wouldn’t it be a big factor in the other half(spirituality)? Going off what we do know, before the time of effigy mounds, the dead were buried then later re-buried in “Feasts of the Dead” . These large spiritual proceedings functioned to re-unite the dead with other dead family members as well as other members of the community, reburying the bones in the same place after certain period of time. This was believed to re-unite the spirits of the dead and ultimately make their time better because they would be amongst one another(buried in the same place). I believe the mounds, serve a quite similar purpose as these earlier burial sites. As expressed in the readings “ the construction of the mounds reflect the elaboration of rituals surrounding death and the desire to create visual and symbolic links among human beings, the land, and the supernatural world”. Moving along further, an R. Clark Mellam quote states that “effigy mound ceremonialism represents the ancient ideology of earth”. I believe that he effigy mounds formulated a conception of the important harmonious co-existence between the real and supernatural world as well as a symbol for the consistent adaptation to both survive and also maintain an appropriate level of respective spirituality.

Having Faith, How and Why?

The question of "Why do we believe" can be answered partially in many ways, however a full, complete, and legitimately "correct" answer is something that can be and will be continuously debated. Exploring the concept of religion takes us into a maze of different proportions, making an intriguing, confusing, and sometimes frustrating process of asking questions and looking for answers. The ongoing debate of whether it is scientifically plausible to be religious is not something that will be solved unless a "God" shows up in some kind of form and convinces the whole world it does indeed exist. Because a lot of who we are, where we came from, and where we will go after death is still a mystery for those who are not completely won over by the scientific or religious explanations, It can be argued that religion has been created internally to “fill the gap” for what we do not already have knowledge and concrete evidence of. As we witnessed in class via video stream, Dawkins believes that religion is( put in your choice Dawkins religion bashing word here). Moving away from Dawkins, who in my opinion is off base because of the radical stance of his arguments, a new front can be argued/presented. As stated in the article, it could be viable to believe that religion and being religious in a spiritual way is something that was created naturally by our brains in order to substitute for the unknown, because “having faith” may in a sense be better(and possibly healthier?) than coming to the point of accepting the complete unknown. In essence, I personally have not come to a formal stance on this issue as religion is something I have been exposed to, however have not taken a stance with just yet. That being said, I have quite a few thoughts and ideas that are scaffolding, and with more understanding and information, could definitely aid in constructing a formal belief.