Food and Religious Practices at Spiro: Implications for Understanding Social Complexity
Author(s): Dawn Rutecki
Year: 2016
Summary
Recent reanalyzes of the Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere have invoked reinvigorated, multi-dimensional research that examines symbolism, social organization, and subsistence practices. Through a reanalysis of faunal remains from Spiro Mounds, OK, this paper interrogates the presence of faunal remains and materials to better contextualize their use through a lens of concurrent religious practices at the site from CE 1000-1400. By contextualizing the remains within broader discussions of images on ritual paraphernalia, I argue that use of these animals both as subsistence and symbolic markers provides a more useful way to understand the entangled worldviews of this community, while providing insight into how religiously influenced food practices may have impacted social organization.
Cite this Record
Food and Religious Practices at Spiro: Implications for Understanding Social Complexity. Dawn Rutecki. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, Florida. 2016 ( tDAR id: 404505)
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Keywords
General
Religion
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Social Complexity
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Subsistence
Geographic Keywords
North America - Southeast
Spatial Coverage
min long: -91.274; min lat: 24.847 ; max long: -72.642; max lat: 36.386 ;