Bowl c. 1100 - 1500

Curator: Well, this ceramic bowl made by Mississippian peoples somewhere between 1100 and 1500 AD and housed here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art immediately strikes me. Editor: The weight of history, certainly, but what draws my eye first is the human effigy adorning it. There’s a powerful sense of both functionality and deep symbolic meaning interwoven here. It feels like more than just a container. Curator: Indeed. Mississippian societies, particularly those in the Central Mississippi Valley, are known for these kinds of sculptural ceramics. Often, these bowls, which were likely used in ritual or ceremonial contexts, served important functions within elite society. This would not have been your average household object. Editor: Right, I'm seeing that the carefully inscribed swirling patterns circling the body. Are those associated with water symbolism? It evokes something deeply primal and elemental. It brings the ideas of purification and fluidity to my mind. Curator: Precisely. Mississippian cosmology deeply associated water with creation myths, the underworld, and fertility. The swirling patterns are very typical depictions of these water associations and how they worked as metaphors within larger socio-political frameworks. Editor: And then there's the human head protruding. Is that possibly a depiction of an ancestor or deity, offering protection or guidance? I suppose it personalizes this object while layering in meanings we are still uncovering. Curator: Absolutely, and what makes it particularly engaging to me is how objects like these reflect power dynamics within Mississippian society and even into museums now, where historical understandings become enmeshed with modern biases. We interpret fragments and extrapolate. Editor: This bowl, through both form and function, seems like an emblem of spiritual and social connection. It asks us to contemplate our relationships to the past and what such visual languages still speak today. Curator: It’s definitely an interesting journey. Contemplating these objects helps reveal those deeper understandings, although it does often force difficult dialogues.