Trends and Traditions in Mississippian Iconography

Examining how scholarly methods and collaborative work with Indigenous communities offer insights into Mississippian symbols, architecture, and landscapes

This volume bridges two approaches to studying iconography—scholarly interpretation and collaborative, multivocal analysis—to generate new understandings of Mississippian period imagery and belief systems. It shows how archaeologists have learned to bring diverse methodologies alongside material data to better interpret symbols, objects, structures, and places from the Indigenous past. It also examines how descendant communities and other stakeholders have become active partners in this work, offering perspectives that add essential cultural context.

Trends and Traditions in Mississippian Iconography begins with case studies that examine imagery with the help of typologies, folklore, and ethnographic observations. These studies illuminate questions such as the ritual roles and construction of medicine lodges and the use of precontact effigy pipes. Then contributors discuss efforts to decolonize iconographic methods by involving Indigenous descendants directly in interpretation, including by inviting Osage storytellers to share the symbolism of the American lotus flower. Together, these chapters highlight both the benefits and challenges of ways of reconstructing knowledge about Native peoples in the deep past.