Pipes, Pots, and Portals: The Imagery of Middle Mississippian Pipes from Etowah

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Art Style as a Communicative Tool in Archaeological Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In his study of Mississippian smoking pipes of the South Appalachian region, Blanton notes that in the Middle Mississippian period smoking rituals became more formalized and restricted to ritual specialists. He identifies several pipe themes associated with the social and political influence of Etowah. In this paper I follow Blanton in exploring the imagery associated with Etowah-related pipe themes. I argue those pipes were portals and their specific imagery connected smokers to various realms of the cosmos and important supernaturals. Further, that connection traveled in two directions, allowing smokers to both communicate with and draw from those realms and beings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Art Style as a Communicative Tool in Archaeological Research

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33653