Diffusion of Religion

The article on Indian Mounds of Wisconsin differed from the other articles we read in class on the Neanderthals and the Holocene period in that religion is an established part of Indian society, so much that it begins to have an influence in other aspects of society such as a source of group definition, protection, guide to living, and science.
With the Neanderthals there was more of absence than presence of religion. We first see the beginning establishment of religion in the Holocene where more religious symbolism was seen in the art, yet religion was not an obvious establishment in the Holocene since archaeologists and anthropologists debate the presence of religion in art. Within the Indian tribes of Wisconsin and other areas of the Midwest religious symbolism is noticed in the patterns on pottery.
At this point, it cannot be doubted whether or not Indians were religious or not.
What I noticed is that certain symbols that are taken as religious in the Indian mounds can be traced back to Paleolithic art and can possibly answer the question as to whether drawing of animals contains religious symbolism or is strictly early humans' interest in science. Indians, like the ancient Maya, classified the world into three parts: upperworld, middle world, and lower world. With this cosmology, certain animals were attributed to each part. For example, birds were usually representative of the upperworld. In the mound effigies, Indians would often depict human beings dressed up as birds and acting as shamans (107).
For Guthrie to say that Paleolithic art reflects only the scientific interest of the artists is to say that Indian art has the same reflection. Yet observers would not make that assertion straight away because of what they know of Indian religious beliefs. By studying Indian mounds, it is obvious that religion is an important aspect since they use it to define their clans, to predict the weather, to help their crops, et cetera but I also think it serves as a good example that it is possible that there was an earlier form of this same type of religion in Paleolithic art.