Evolution of a Ritual: Pipes and Smoking in Etowah’s Realm

Abstract

The reasons religions change and the processes by which those changes occur may be explored through the study of ritual. Here those issues are examined in the context of late prehistoric Mississippian societies (AD 900–1600) in the southeastern United States, specifically within the realm of Etowah, which was one of the preeminent political and religious centers of the region. A progression of changes in both the physical form of smoking pipes and their contexts of discovery reveals how the rite was differently controlled and performed in accordance with varying social, political, and economic circumstances.