Mother Earth, Father Sky, Figurative Art and Reproduction at Cahokia and in the Mississippian World

Summary

In the Cahokian world the sounds and sights of night would have brought stories: the moon, morning star and evening star; human origins. Origin stories generally abound with sex, (mother earth, father sky) but our analyses are oddly devoid of sex. Yet Mississippian figurative art plays with the seen and unseen of sex as it hints at how cosmic principles, sex, and gender were entangled and tied to night and reproduction. By focusing on reproductive themes, but not sex, archaeologists have not fully faced feminine principles. They have instead focused on warrior and shaman images. In the Cahokian figurative world, where women birth corn and gourds, much more can be teased out about how sex and reproduction were intertwined with the cosmos at night.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Archaeology of the Night

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