Priest-Chief greeting the rising sun
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Priest-Chief greeting the rising sun
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Agricultural societies throughout history have marked the arrival of spring and the planting of crops with celebrations, ceremonies, and rituals. Households probably performed their own rituals for the gods of sun, rain, river, and other supernatural beings of the upper and lower worlds to insure a good growing season and harvest (see below). Rituals probably became more elaborate with increasing settlement size and the presence of wealthy, religious elites. The "corn goddess" cult represented by several figurines from special structures at sites like the BBB Motor site (QTVR of the Birger figurine) may have been part of rebirth and planting rituals performed in the spring.
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Maple syrup and spring greens brought welcomed relief from the monotonous winter diet of stored grain and dried meat. Food resource availability increased dramatically in the late spring and early summer. Some family members spent part of their time fishing, gathering mussels, and harvesting wild roots and maygrass to add variety to meals. Many "meals" were probably eaten away from home at the field's edge where strawberries, squirrels, and fish were abundant.
Children were likely encouraged make use of this abundance when helping with family chores. Young children anxious to prove their worth could have honed their hunting skills by prowling the field's edge for squirrel during the day or by sitting quietly in the early morning or evening hours waiting for the unsuspecting rabbit or bird. Adults and children of both sexes may have sought relief from farming chores by fishing for a sunfish or catfish snack and napping along the cool, shaded stream banks. Thus, although perhaps variable by age and sex, people enjoyed a diversified and nutritional diet during parts of the year. The diversity of animal species in Mississippian faunal assemblages is consistent with opportunistic hunting and fishing while tending crops, scaring crows, and gathering wild plant foods. |
Spring returns to the American Bottom. |
| Other springtime activities probably included cleaning and repairing the home. "Spring cleaning" probably consisted of using smudge pits to smoke out rodents and insects that infested the walls and roofs over the winter, patching holes in the walls with new daub, removing of rotten poles, and repairing leaky thatch. Green brush just cleared from fields may have been left in convenient locations for later use as kindling and firewood. Many brush piles were probably burned to provide ash fertilizer in the maize fields. |