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Visualizing the Sacred

Cosmic Visions, Regionalism, and the Art of the Mississippian World
  • Edited by: George E. Lankford , F. Kent Reilly and James F. Garber
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2011
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About this book

The prehistoric native peoples of the Mississippi River Valley and other areas of the Eastern Woodlands of the United States shared a complex set of symbols and motifs that constituted one of the greatest artistic traditions of the pre-Columbian Americas. Traditionally known as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, these artifacts of copper, shell, stone, clay, and wood were the subject of the groundbreaking 2007 book Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian Iconography, which presented a major reconstruction of the rituals, cosmology, ideology, and political structures of the Mississippian peoples.

Visualizing the Sacred advances the study of Mississippian iconography by delving into the regional variations within what is now known as the Mississippian Iconographic Interaction Sphere (MIIS). Bringing archaeological, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and iconographic perspectives to the analysis of Mississippian art, contributors from several disciplines discuss variations in symbols and motifs among major sites and regions across a wide span of time and also consider what visual symbols reveal about elite status in diverse political environments. These findings represent the first formal identification of style regions within the Mississippian Iconographic Interaction Sphere and call for a new understanding of the MIIS as a network of localized, yet interrelated religious systems that experienced both continuity and change over time.

Author / Editor information

George E. Lankford is an emeritus professor of folklore at Lyon College. His books include Looking for Lost Lore: Studies in Folklore, Ethnology, and Iconography and Reachable Stars: Patterns in the Ethnoastronomy of Eastern North America.

F. Kent Reilly III and James F. Garber are faculty members at Texas State University–San Marcos. Reilly is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for the Arts and Symbolism of Ancient America. Garber is Professor of Anthropology. Together, they coedited Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian Iconography.


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James F. Garber, George E. Lankford and F. Kent Reilly
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General studies

George E. Lankford
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James R. Duncan
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Regional studies: Middle Mississippi valley

James A. Brown
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Carol Diaz-Granados
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64
Regional studies: Lower Mississippi valley

David H. Dye
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97

F. Kent Reilly
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118
Regional studies: Cumberland valley

Vincas P. Steponaitis, Vernon James Knight Jr., George E. Lankford, Robert V. Sharp and David H. Dye
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135

Robert V. Sharp, Vernon James Knight Jr. and George E. Lankford
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177
Regional studies: Moundville

Vernon James Knight Jr. and Vincas P. Steponaitis
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199

George E. Lankford
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George E. Lankford
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Regional studies: Etowah and upper Tennessee valley

Adam King
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277

F. Kent Reilly and James F. Garber
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294

Adam King and F. Kent Reilly
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 21, 2010
eBook ISBN:
9780292784659
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
375
Other:
53 b&w photos, 81 b&w illus., 1 b&w map, 3 tables
Downloaded on 24.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7560/723085/html
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