Page 533 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

ment and dress, particularly in their use of large force presumably led to the frequent employ-
and showy headdresses (cats. 438, 440). To sig- ment of solar disc and cross-rayed motifs as
nify their importance chiefs were sometimes shorthand symbols of chiefly power. The fire
carried over the heads of ordinary people in was ritually renewed each year in order to
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litter transports. These ordinary individuals replace with pure fire the old one, which had
belonged to low-ranking families. Although absorbed the pollution generated by the com-
enormous differences in wealth and privilege munity over the preceding year.
were associated with family rank, each society The dead held such a potent place in the
was bound together into two complementary affairs of the living that certain objects were
family groups having reciprocal obligations to created to draw upon that power. Pottery ver-
each other. sions of stone and wooden shrine figures, made
fig. 2. The Natchez Chief Great Sun Being Trans- A small minority of carefully selected and in the Arkansas area, appear to be embodiments
ported on a Litter
trained individuals controlled the rites and para- of the very dead whose remains were kept in
phernalia belonging to the sanctified shrine. the town shrines. Ceramic pots were modeled to
some sense alive. The contemporary Tukabah- Rites were entirely secret. Typically, transgres- resemble human heads, essentially those of dead
chee Creek, who no longer maintained a sacred sions such as allowing the sacred fire to become men (cat. 435). Marine shell masks with thun-
shrine house, nevertheless brought their image profaned with ordinary fire were punished by derbolt markings descending from the eyes like-
out into the town square to consecrate impor- death —an indication of the awful jeopardy into wise have mortuary associations. These masks
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tant public affairs. Although these images gen- which the entire community was believed to be were widely employed in the sixteenth century,
erally were of males, along the Mississippi River placed by this infraction. So bound up with the and from later testimony we know that they
female figures were reported and among the health and well-being of the community were were the principal components of the sacred
South Appalachian cultures these images were these sacred flames that when calamity struck, bundle, a kind of portable shrine carried on the*
paired, one male and the other female. 14 the custodians of the fire were expected to take warpath. 17
Differences in representation probably reflect the blame. In this context the commentary of El Inca
differing conceptions regarding descent from The sacred fire was no ordinary fire since it describing the southeastern religions is quite
the gods. was conceived as being kindled by the sun. As a understandable. Since the gods were connected
The ruling family held a preeminent social representative of the sun on earth, for each with the most sacred forces relevant to social
status through its genealogical descent from the town it defined the center of the universe. The life, religious rites could be kept simple and
town founder. As a consequence, the chief was four directions branched off this center, and a guided entirely by the worship of the tribal
the principal if not the sole person having access fifth was created by the ascent of smoke to the leaders. Because these deities were extensions
to the shrine's inner sanctum. From this priv- heavens of the upper world. The four directions of tribal kinship, it was logical to expect the
ileged position he acted as mediator between were commonly represented by four logs set senior representatives of the tribe to arrogate to
the deity—the sun —and the general popula- pointing to the center where the fire slowly themselves the propitiation of their own ances-
tion. He held esoteric sacred knowledge shared burned. In keeping with the importance of the tor gods.
only among a small group of priestly officials. 15 sacred fire as an embodiment of the life force, The rites of the privileged minority were a
A group of "nobles" from second- and third- each town maintained its own fire under the special refinement on generally espoused beliefs
ranking families shared some of the preroga- care and protection of the highest ritual practi- about the powers of nature that impinge upon
tives held by the ruling family. All of the elite tioners. The authority that the elite, as custo- everyday existence. The task of ritual, whether
were distinguished from commoners in deport- dians of the town's power, took from this life under priestly control or not, was to maintain

fig. 3. Neck Ornament. Engraved shell, c. 1400- fig. 4. Mask of the Ancestor Spirit (?). Carved and fig. 5. Gorget. Engraved marine shell, c. 1500-1600.
1500. The looped square frame is a transformation of engraved in marine shell, c. 1500-1600. Lightning The motif is a rattlesnake's head within its coils. The
the litter in fig. 2 bolts of the thunderers descend from the eyes teeth in the jaws suggest the cougar

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