An Analysis of the Symbolism Expressed by the Birger Figurine

Guy Prentice

40 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Antiquity

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Archaeological and Geological Studies Indigenous Cultures and History Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory

Abstract

During the field season of 1979 a bauxite statuette known as the Birger figurine was uncovered at the BBB Motor site, a Middle Mississippian ceremonial site on the outskirts of Cahokia. A comparison of the figurine's compositional elements with characteristics ascribed to fertility goddesses in the myths of several historic eastern North American tribes suggests that the Birger figurine's symbolism shares many of the concepts associated with various historic fertility deities, and that it represents a Mississippian version of the Earth-Mother.

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References

1950Florentine Codex: General history of the things of New Spain 1947Indians of the South-Eastern United States 1971Approaches to the social dimensions of mortuary practices 1896The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791 1975Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of North American Indians 1978Mississippian Settlement Patterns 2009Indian Linguistic Families of America: North of Mexico 1945A PREHISTORIC CEREMONIAL COMPLEX IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

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