Effigy Mounds in Wisconsin

Man Mound, Baraboo, Wisconsin

In his definition of religion, Geertz writes that religion is "A system of symbols which acts to establish a powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that that moods and motivations seems uniquely realistic." When it comes to effigy mounds in Wisconsin and surrounding states, the "system of symbols" that Geertz references seem to correlate with these mounds. These effigy mounds acted as a sacred place where Native American would gather and where they would bury their dead in what is believed to be mass burial ceremonies.  
These mounds are visible and tangible. You can see them when you walk by. Because these mounds served not only a spiritual function but a visible and tangible function, it is obvious that they were the system of religious or spiritual symbols the Native Americans used at the time. 

 The fact that these Native Americans spent so much time and energy making these mounds into specific shapes and animals means that they put a special emphasis on these animals depicted. First of all, there was an obvious marking function with these mounds. Native Americans wanted to create spiritual places they could return to, so making these spiritual places into mounds made it easy to remember where they were. There were no written records of anything during that time, so a visual mound was the best way to go. But why not just stop at the conical mounds they built? Well, they obviously had created a series of symbols they believed to be spiritual and simultaneously build effigy mounds to reflect that. So these mounds are not only markers of spiritual places, but they act as a series of religious symbols because of the animalistic shapes they reflect. 

When it comes to the general order of existence, there were a few facts pointed out in the reading that illustrated that Native Americans could have potentially believed these mounds reflected the general order of existence.  Native Americans believed in a dualistic cosmological order. They believed in an upper and lower world. These effigy mounds reflected that, because they were in shapes of birds (representing upper world) as well as deer, panthers, fish, etc (representing lower world).  This alone gives insight into how Native Americans viewed the general order of the cosmos. But going one step further, the book stated that in more lower world areas, for example rivers or lakes, Native Americans would build not only lower but upper world effigy mounds. This points to another view the Native Americans may have had, and that view is that the world must be balanced to bring good fortune and wealth. They chose to add upper world effigy mounds to naturally occurring lower world landscapes in an attempt to balance the two worlds.