Indian Mounds as "systems of symbols"

It is clear that mounds, and effigy mounds in particular, had religious significance to the Native Americans. Going off the Clifford Geertz definition of religion as "a system of symbols", the mounds' purpose was to "[formulate] conceptions of a general order of existence" which they did. Native American spirituality was based on nature, so they looked to the world around them to answer religious questions. Their spirituality depended a lot upon harmony in nature and the three basic elements of nature: water, air, and earth. It is from these basic elements that much of the symbolism of effigy mounds comes from. The three elements of nature are central to Native American ideology because they represent the natural resources that humans need for survival, which is how nature acts as a conception of a general order of existence. Different effigies symbolized different elements, for example bird symbolized the air and the sky, turtle and lizard shapes represent water, and bears represent earth. The use of mounds for burial sites, it is hypothesized, was meant to be a symbolism of returning to the earth. The end of one life was seen as the beginning of a new life and the Native Americans looked to nature as that which sustained their existence.