The De Luna Expedition and Southeastern Ceremonial

Extract

James B. Griffin, in his recent paper, “The De Luna Expedition and the Buzzard Cult in the Southeast,“ advances the hypothesis that the ceremonial material characteristic of such mound sites as Etowah, Georgia; Moundville, Alabama; and Spiro, Oklahoma, is the result of proselytizing efforts of escaped Mexican Indian servants ’ imported with the De Luna Expedition (1559–1561). He states that “the De Luna Expedition might well have furnished the impetus that resulted in the adoption in the Southeast of various Mexican art styles and concepts.“

This question is of course a basic one in Southeastern archaeology. These Mexicanoid elements are graphic focalizations of a cult which swept over the Southeast from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes and from the Plains to the Atlantic. Taken at face value, this hypothesis of Griffin's is a simple tool for explaining the otherwise puzzling stylistic resemblances between Southeastern ceremonial art and the Mixteca-Pueblo “culture” of Mexico.