Cahokia's origins: Religion, complexity and ridge-top mortuaries in the Mississippi River Valley
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation contextualizes religion and complexity as it influenced the emergence of the city of Cahokia through an exploration of ridge-top mortuary practices across the three precincts of Cahokia, East St. Louis and St. Louis ca. AD 1050-1200. Through the theoretical lens of relational ontology and ‘New Animism’ I investigate how Cahokia’s emergence was intrinsically tied to the practice of a new religion. Rather than focusing on religion as a product of the evolutionary development of Native American persons in North America, this study examines religion as a complexity of practices, beliefs, and places bundled with Cahokia’s emergence (sensu Pauketat 2013a). It is proposed that this religion was not a monolithic or static entity, but rather that religion was a dynamic lived component of Cahokia’s beginnings. In this study both the macro and micro scales of Cahokian mortuary practice, as an extension of religious belief, will be addressed. The aboriginal transformation of the natural landscape into a built space that foregrounds ridge-top mortuaries, associated mortuary features and the burial of the dead are explored as relational components of a new Cahokian religion. In particular, the orientation and alignment of the precinct of Downtown Cahokia will be re-analyzed with a specific focus on Cahokia’s orientation as it relates to the location of the newly discovered and excavated Rattlesnake Causeway and the ridge-top mounds located along the site axes. In addition to these lines of evidence this study also presents new data from the previous excavations conducted by Preston Holder at the small ridge-top Wilson Mound, as well as a complete analysis of the human remains excavated from this small mortuary. Through this skeletal analysis I present data on the ways Cahokians, at Wilson Mound, processed and buried human remains. I explore the process of disarticulation and the importance of the curation of the human body prior to burial. Significantly, new rad…
abstract: This dissertation contextualizes religion and complexity as it influenced the emergence of the city of Cahokia through an exploration of ridge-top mortuary practices across the three precincts of Cahokia, East St. Louis and St. Louis ca. AD 1050-1200. Through the theoretical lens of relational ontology and ‘New Animism’ I investigate how Cahokia’s emergence was intrinsically tied to the practice of a new religion. Rather than focusing on religion as a product of the evolutionary development of Native American persons in North America, this study examines religion as a complexity of practices, beliefs, and places bundled with Cahokia’s emergence (sensu Pauketat 2013a). It is proposed that this religion was not a monolithic or static entity, but rather that religion was a dynamic lived component of Cahokia’s beginnings. In this study both the macro and micro scales of Cahokian mortuary practice, as an extension of religious belief, will be addressed. The aboriginal transformation of the natural landscape into a built space that foregrounds ridge-top mortuaries, associated mortuary features and the burial of the dead are explored as relational components of a new Cahokian religion. In particular, the orientation and alignment of the precinct of Downtown Cahokia will be re-analyzed with a specific focus on Cahokia’s orientation as it relates to the location of the newly discovered and excavated Rattlesnake Causeway and the ridge-top mounds located along the site axes. In addition to these lines of evidence this study also presents new data from the previous excavations conducted by Preston Holder at the small ridge-top Wilson Mound, as well as a complete analysis of the human remains excavated from this small mortuary. Through this skeletal analysis I present data on the ways Cahokians, at Wilson Mound, processed and buried human remains. I explore the process of disarticulation and the importance of the curation of the human body prior to burial. Significantly, new rad…
author: Baires, Sarah
language: en
keywords: Religion, New Animism, Mortuary Practice, Cahokia, City
date published: 2014-05-30T16:43:09Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:38Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/49421