Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
and contemporary Mesoamerican cultures (i.e., artwork with similar aesthetics or motifs; maize-based agriculture; and the development of sophisticated cities with large pyramidal structures), scholars from the late 1800s to mid-1900s suspected there was a connection between the two locations.
[5] [6] One hypothesis was that Meso-Americans enslaved by conquistador Tristán de Luna y Arellano (1510-1573) may have spread artistic and religious elements to North America.
was first defined in 1945 by the archaeologists Antonio Waring and Preston Holder as a series of four lists of traits, which they categorized as the Southeastern (centered) Ceremonial Complex.
Their concept was of a complex of a specific cult manifestation that originated with Muskogean-speaking peoples in the southern United States.
[9][10] Since then scholars have expanded the original definition, while using its trait lists as a foundation for critical analysis of the entire concept.
[12] As of 2004, theories suggest that the complex developed from pre-existing beliefs spread over the midwest and southeast by the Hopewell Interaction Sphere from 100 BCE to 500 CE.
This kind of network may be illustrated by a pair of shell gorgets whose representation is so similar as to suggest that they were made by the same artist.
Numerous other pairs of extremely similar gorgets serve to link sites across the entire Southeast.
[14] The social organization of the Mississippian culture was based on warfare, which was represented by an array of motifs and symbols in articles made from costly raw materials, such as conches from Florida, copper from the Great Lakes area and Appalachian Mountains, lead from northern Illinois and Iowa, pottery from Tennessee, and stone tools sourced from Kansas, Texas, and southern Illinois.
These warrior symbols occur alongside other artifacts, which bear cosmic imagery depicting animals, humans, and legendary creatures.
With the redefinition of the complex, some scholars have suggested choosing a new name to exemplify the new understanding of the large body of art symbols classified as the S.E.C.C.
Participants of a decade-long series of conferences held at Texas State University have proposed the terms "Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere" or "M.I.I.S."
The major expression of the complex developed at the Cahokia site and is known as the Braden Style; it corresponds with the Southern Cult Period horizon defined by Muller.
During the ensuing centuries, the local traditions diverged into the religious beliefs and cosmologies of the different historic tribes known to exist at the time of European contact.
The Above World or Overworld, was the home of the Thunderers, the Sun, Moon, and Morning Star or Red Horn / "He Who Wears Human Heads For Earrings" and represented Order and Stability.
It was simultaneously an avatar of warriors and an object of supplication for a lengthy life, healthy family, and a long line of descendants.
It is associated with warfare, high-stakes gaming, and possibly family dynastic ambitions, symbolized by arrow flights and the rising of the pre-dawn morning star as metaphors for the succession of descendants into the future.
It survived afterward in the Red Horn mythological cycle and native religion of the Ho-Chunk (Winnebagos), Osage, Ioway, and other plains Siouan peoples.
After winning the race, Redhorn creates heads on his earlobes and makes his hair into a long red braid.
In another episode, Redhorn and his friends are challenged by the Giants to play ball (or possibly chunkey)[23] with their lives staked on the outcome.
The characters in the myth seem to be tied integrally to the pipe ceremony, and its association with kinship and adoption.
Other native peoples also gave descriptions of the being, sometimes now referred to as the Spirit Otter, with the majority seeming to belong to one of two extremes, and a multitude in between.
practitioners worked with feathers and designs woven into cloth, practiced body painting, and possibly tattooing, as well as having pierced ears.
