Article Title：Demystifying the Big Born Medicine Wheel: A contextual analysis of meaning, symbolism, and function
Abstract：
The Big Horn Medicine Wheel in northern Wyoming has been the subject of anthropological curiosity for more than a century. Yet despite this long history of investigation, relatively little is known about the uses and meanings embedded in this stone configuration in the past. Previous studies have tended to focus exclusively on the original purpose and function of this structure, resulting in essentializing and unsatisfactory hypotheses regarding its construction. In an attempt to rectify this situation, this study utilizes a contextual approach to examine the multiple meanings and symbolic aspects of the Big Horn Medicine Wheel previously ignored in purely functional analyses. Specifically, this study focuses on two features of this famous monument: 1) the placement of this medicine wheel within the surrounding landscape and geology of Medicine Mountain; and 2) the numerical symbolism and meanings embedded in the structure itself The results of this analysis suggest that the Big Horn Medicine Wheel is affiliated with the regeneration of game and notions of new life for indigenous Plains peoples, and was likely used in association with precontact and historic period vision quests.
Keywords: medicine wheels; Big Horn Mountains; vision quest; landscape archaeology
DOI: 10.1080/2052546.2002.11932109
Source：PLAINS ANTHROPOLOGIST
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