Clifford Geertz, an anthropologist, defined religion in the following way. He said that religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivation seem uniquely realistic. Can this definition of religion be used to explain the effigy mounds of Wisconsin?

My immediate response is that these effigy mounds do follow the definition of Geertz's definition. Two of the main arguments that Clifford Geertz makes in his definition is the idea of creating (or having) something that has a distinct purpose and having it be used to explain an important part of one's belief. The effigy mounds cover both of these notions very well.

It is clear that these mound builders created these mounds to symbolize their belief system. These mounds can be found in different shapes intertwined in Wisconsin. These shapes include humans, animals, and other natural realms such as the sky and water. These specially shaped mounds symbolize their main belief of the harmony they felt between themselves and nature. They believed that one is not superior of the other. In addition to explaining a particular group's beliefs, these mounds also had a purpose. Even though the purpose of the rituals they preformed aren't clear to us yet, we know that they had a distinct purpose that was very important to them.