Native American Mounds

According to Geertz' definition of religion, one can claim that the construction of these earth mounds were religiously affiliated. One, because the mounds show progress in construction from the Early and Middle Woodland people to the Late Woodland people, who built larger and more extravagant mounds. Two, because there is symbolism everywhere, grouped in three categories air (upperworld): birds, earth (lowerworld): bears , water (lowerworld) : (water spirits) panthers, lizards, turtles , etc. All these symbols were resources that humans depended on. Thirdly, based on the massive amounts of mounds made, the number of years it took to make a mound, and the number of people it took to make a mound, this effort indicates a shared cultural understanding of the sacred places involved.

Similar to the symbols mentioned above, when discussing the Lascaux Cave, one could claim the same thing that the pictures drawn "were resources that humans depended on." The difference between the cave pictures and the Native American mounds are that there is not enough evidence to claim the cave pictures as religiously affiliated. I believe that the cave pictures simply represented what people were seeing and represented the function of animals in their lives. I also believe that these straightforward drawings could have easily evolved into a religion many years after that due to their dependence on animals and nature. The Native American mounds, however, represented a way of thinking about existence, and "ideology from the earth". They believed that mother earth was working with them, which shows their strong connection to nature, and therefore; their strong attachment to the animals they would kill. The mounds were built to symbolize and ritually maintain balance and harmony with the natural world.

Our use of animals in the name of sports clubs is completely different to the reverence the Native Americans had for animals. For example, the animals they would represent in the earth mounds were animals that they lived among and helped them survive by killing them and using every part of that animal. We eat cows, goats, pigs, deer, but rarely, if ever, do you see these animals as mascots because we are not using animals to represent the respect we have for them because they quench our hunger, but instead, we use animals that represent strength, courage, and power. The point of a sports team is to show who is the strongest and who can persevere. Most of the animals represented on sports teams are not animals we see on a daily basis, maybe in the zoo from time to time.