Effigy Mounds

I agree with the Geertz definition of religion in relation to the effigy mounds. I also agree with the idea of the mounds and cemeteries representing a renewal of the earth; however I believe that the mounds were also built to establish a sense of territorial dominance and worship within Native Americans culture.
Native American societies, specifically the Red Ocher complexes, and the Adena people, buried many different materials along with the body to represent a person’s social status. They chose to put all power into material items to establish a sense of worth. The effigy mounds were built with this same concept in mind. It seems to me that the construction of the mounds was the beginning of the Native American societal hierarchy. The mounds were somehow the authority figure in the hierarchy; they represented the idea that nature comes before humans. Nature was always recognized and worshiped in the Adena rituals. The mounds were built so that one could not get around it without recognizing its beauty and its size. It gets in the way of one’s path.
Question: “Like the Old Copper and Red Ocher Complexes in Wisconsin and adjacent regions, Adena was not one culture, but a cluster of rituals shared by a number of different people” (page 83). In my opinion, culture within a group consists of shared beliefs and values. The Adena people shared the same rituals and beliefs among their people; wouldn’t this make them one culture?
Some sweet mounds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCLGUqG87E0