Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

F. Kent Reilly III is a founding member of the Mississippian Iconography Workshop, who has worked tirelessly to organize these yearly symposia that are often held at the University of Texas at San Marcos. This also entailed convincing and cajoling Mississippian archaeologists with diverse perspectives into attending these conferences and working together. Additionally, Kent has been an extremely productive scholar that has published on various topics related to Olmec, Mississippian, and historic Native American iconographic motifs, themes, and beliefs. His iconographic analyses of prehistoric symbols from Mesoamerica and the southeastern United States have inspired several generations of students, colleagues, and other archaeologists. He has served, as well, as a mentor and advisor that has shepherded students into archaeology and onward into a variety of professional positions. In this symposium, we offer iconographic analyses in Kent’s honor inspired by his work and approach to the prehistoric symbols. Some of the topics that have guided his research include how prehistoric iconographic imagery relate to various ceremonies, dances, cults, bundles, cosmologies, and deities, as well as their relationship to the development/expression of power and difference. These topics serve as guideposts for the archaeologists participating in this symposium and our forays into iconographic imagery.