Why might some mounds have been built to look like animals?

While these mounds take many forms and served different purposes, with each in a sense telling its own story, all were built entirely by hand, usually by piling up earth one basket-full at a time. Some served as burial mounds for the honored dead, while other flat-topped mounds were parts of large cities or towns and held temples or ceremonial buildings, and still others were built in the shape of giant animals.

theories seem to agree that the shapes of the mounds represent totems, or animals symbolizing specific lineages or clans. The mounds were probably built in the warmer months, by groups of people who spent winters dispersed into small groups

Explanation:

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