Performance, ritual, and revitalization at Poverty Point

Between 4000 and 3000 cal BP, the Lower Mississippi Valley experienced significant climatic and environmental changes, including increased rainfall, cooler temperatures, and high-frequency flooding. These shifts affected regional environmental stability, leading to landscape disruptions across much of eastern North America. Indigenous peoples responded to these disruptions by coming together at the Poverty Point site in northeast Louisiana and performing elaborate rituals over brief periods that included constructing earthworks and deploying bundles of diverse raw materials and unique or intricately wrought artifacts, both aimed at cosmological revitalization. These activities reflect a complex understanding of the interdependence between humans and the cosmos, where all recognized entities are connected to one another in an infinitely complex web of being. Consequently, these performances and rituals were undertaken because people believed they had a moral responsibly to renew the web of being when the world is disordered. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of complex hunter-gatherer ritual behavior that foregrounds the moral agency of humans as they navigate climatic adversities.