Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Citrus County, FL 2009

KINSHIP

Mounds were kinship machines, busy physical plants where communal ties and shared identity were produced daily. Showrooms too, they displayed those same goods.

A burial mound is both a constant, visible symbol of a clan’s lineage and a repository for its ancestors, where they are visited and consulted.
Only a priest could perform ceremonies on a temple mound, we think, and it took a chief to convene a meeting. But everyone came to the mounds to find—and to create—common ground.

Next: Maximo Point Park, Pinellas County, FL 2010