JOURACA_SP_2017

From Profane to Sacred: European Materials’
Integration Into Native American Cosmology
Campbell Walker
The precarious sociopolitical setting
of mid-to-late sixteenth-century Mississippian
southeastern North America
witnessed a transition in native
worldview. This transition is reflected
in the archaeological record of Pine
Log Creek burial mound site in southwestern
Alabama, where local Mississippian
elites incorporated European
materials into traditional cosmological
artifact forms. Analysis of these artifacts’
attributes (including material,
color, form, and origin) reveal characteristics
that indicate these items communicated
symbolic meaning pertaining
to the Mississippian cosmos. European
materials were incorporated
into cosmological media as a way to
retain status, invoke the supernatural,
and impose order during turbulent
times.
Department of Anthropology
Mentor: Gregory Waselkov
Sociology, Anthropology and
Social Work
43