Cahokia Mounds
As I stand at the top of the tallest mound, I see the obvious necessity of building the mounds. The flat, low ground next to the largest North American river should have flooded often. The physical structure of the environment necessitated higher ground. But the mounds are also monuments. Monuments serve purposes not dictated by the physical environment, but by psychological impulses.
The 20th century psychiatrist, Carl Jung, believed that every interaction between mankind and his environment originates and expresses mankind’s psyche. What psychological impulses lead to monument building? I don’t know, but given the chance, I would have questions for the Cahokians themselves.
To the Cahokian chief, I would love to ask, “Why it is that people
in power must build exhibits of that power?” Did the impulse to build the mounds come from the chiefs? The shamans? Or is there something about mankind’s social psychology that the needs of a society necessitate monument building? In other words, is it the will of the people, conscious or otherwise? It seems we have a tendency to build inappropriate places for our leaders. How many generations accepted the onus of hard labor needed for such an endeavor? Did the powerless, always obliged to the worst labor, lose a sense of purpose? Were they free to walk away? Or did the will of the people digress to slavery? As the chief, you were placed in residence at the very top of the highest mound. The physical and social places become one. Were you free to roam among common citizens? Or did the mound become a prison? Did power imprison you as it always seems to? (The Buddha, Laozi, and Jesus lived in poverty for good reason.)
To the shaman I would ask, “To what gods were you building the mounds? Was the mound your Mt. Sinai?” Heights are always a metaphor of higher consciousness. Did the mound maintain its spiritual purity, or morph into a Tower of Babel? It seems man forever corrupts his own greatest achievements.
When Shakespeare was penning Macbeth, Cahokia was more populous than London. At the zenith of Cahokian culture, could anyone have foreseen its imminent demise? It seems that monument building marks the peak of achievement. A peak is growth on one side and contraction on the other.
The question I’d most like to ask to every Cahokian is, “What were you thinking as you watched the environment deplete around you? Was there some lost wisdom remembered too late? Is there something you could teach us, something we might do differently today? Or are we destined to the same fate, because we lack the psychological tools necessary to keep us from destroying our own environment and therefore our culture?”
As the Cahokians dug through tree roots to get dirt for the mounds and, as they tried to keep other trees at bay, I doubt they gave the preservation of the natural environment much thought. Nature must have seemed more overwhelming than it does today. If there is a lesson to be learned here it is that nature always wins, sooner or later.
davel, Thank you for the comment. You said…nature always wins,sooner or later… That’s my point exactly. Nature has lost its sacredness. And we will pay the consequences for forgetting that nature is sacred. No matter one’s belief, it is still God’s creation. In my own social network, I find that the atheists and humanists are “carrying the load” of environmental concerns. And I think shame on the religious communities for our lack of care and effort. Of course I’m generalizing, but I think my generalizations are correct.
I don’t see the obvious necessity of building the mounds because of the floods as they were to close to the bluffs and they wouldn’t of had the flood issues that we have today, I don’t think that the same psychological reasons can be used for building our monuments today as in the past, They are not sure what caused the end of this Cahokian community I would think the answer may be found in our human nature, (resistance to abuse of power, to dominance,belief in supernatural/religion, beliefs false, beliefs about death, beliefs about disease, beliefs about fortune and misfortune, Donald E Brown Human Universals) I think the people got wise to the abuse of the leaders power and as the religious beliefs started to change the leaders could no longer hold on to their power and here we are today a more advanced world. I think we can learn from these people how important our Constitution is and that religion and politics should be kept separate.
Mark, I thought about the bluffs before writing the blog. I think mounds are still necessary. The Cahokians would have had to carry everything up the bluffs. No horses or oxen. They never knew if a flood was going to “stop at the doorstep” or ravish the landscape. I think that after carrying all their belongings needlessly up the bluffs, they would see the mounds as a better system of dealing with the river. Quite simply, once the mounds are built, it takes less work than walking up the bluffs burdened by belongings. Also, flash floods may not have allowed them sufficient time to get belongings to safety.
It is my understanding that the landscape flooded more often since there was no levee system.
Our psychology doesn’t evolve quickly enough for there to be much difference between us and the Cahokians.
I tried to show that the destruction of the environment caused the collapse of the Cahokian culture. At the end of the day, its always Nature that dictates such catastrophes. From a biological perspective, if the land could have produced a means of subsistence, somebody would have occupied the land.
Your statement “here we are today, a more advanced world” may be true at many levels. But the whole point of the post was to show that we haven’t learned from the mistakes of past cultures. We are harming our environment way, way more than the Cahokians.
Mark, Could you explain universals? I’m assuming Brown is an author.
A recent doumentary on our relationship with food makes a useful observation. That mono culture is what leads to weakness and fragile existence. Acres and acres of the sameness: wheat, corn, potatoes, people roads, machines, and cultures.
Diversity in everything is the persitent way of life. Cahokians may have failed or not. That they were here and gone is their legacy to us. We too will have our turn, and be gone.
Ed here is the definition of Human Universals, Correct me in my understanding about humanist, I am thinking that humanist would have an interest in the study of Human Universals
References:The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, by Steven Pinker How the Mind Works, by Steven Pinker Human Universals, by Donald E Brown The Selfish Gene, by Richard DawkinsThe Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, by Spencer Wells
It also seems to me that a humanist would study
Thomas Paine (Mr. Humanist) Thomas Paine was the #1 founding father of the United States and the great things that he was able to do in his life was because he knew the nature of humans.
Quotations You cannot change the stripes on a tiger
Definitions:The intrinsic similarities shared by all humans.
Human Universals As anthropologists began to study various cultures around the world, they were first struck by the diversity of human behaviors, customs, habits, and traditions. But as the cultural studies continued in more depth, it became clear that the most fundamental aspects of humanity are more similar than different throughout the wide variety of world cultures. Some of the similarities shared by nearly all humans, called human universals
Human nature is the concept that there are a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that all ‘normal’ human beings have in common.[1] The branches of science associated with the study of human nature include sociology, sociobiology and psychology, particularly evolutionary psychology and developmental psychology. Philosophers and theologians have also carried out research on human nature. The sum of qualities and traits shared by all humans
Ed you say that we haven’t learned from mistakes of the past cultures and that we are harming our environment more than the Cahokians I think we are doing much better than our past cultures did, if we just study the history of Missouri in the last 100 years and the Department of Conservation we can see that things have got much better our rivers and forest are in good hands, We humans don’t seem to want to change bad habits until it causes us pain and we don’t want change unless we understand why, The Governments must lead the way in protecting our nature resources, Greed,Survival,Money and Ignorance is the main reasons our environment is being destroyed
Another, Thanks for the response. You said “diversity in everything”. I agree. I also interpret culture as an extension of Nature. That said, I think diversity in religious thought is healthier that a single point of view. Peace, Ed
Mark, It seems from your feedback on universals that you would love the works of Carl Jung. I see many similarities.
It also seems from your feedback that a study of universals would create a healthy respect for all religious traditions.
I’m not sure one could agree with universals without seeing that all religions speak the same message, but with different languages.
Thanks for posting good info and pics on Cahokia. It is my dream to go there someday.