Holata Merenciana was not alone in trying to navigate and knit together this diverse world. Collectively, Mocama, Yamasee, and Guale women responded to the pressures of Spanish missionary activities and English-sponsored slave raiding by forming a new network together. Among other things, they exchanged ideas about pottery styles. As a result, first the Mocamas and later the Yamasees adopted the pottery style of the Guales.
The world symbol (filfot) on this pottery offers a window into Native identities and cosmological beliefs. It is a modified version of the pre - contact symbol widely used across the Native South, featuring lines in the four cardinal directions with a central dot, representing the sun, this world, or both. Guale, Yamasee, and Mocama women continued to decorate pots with the world symbol design throughout the turbulent years of colonization. Despite Spanish missionaries’ efforts, they kept precontact religious beliefs.
