The Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America - Explore Ancient Native American History & Culture - Perfect for History Buffs & Anthropology Students

the traditional view of the mississippian culture implies that these superchieftanships emerged along the mississippi river drainage areas and controlled vast territories from 1000 A.D. to 1400 A.D. then suddenly crashed due to warfare,drought,famine,cultural exhaustion,(or add your own cause here).This book refines this interpretation to where a completely different and complex picture emerges.The Mississippian complex at Cahokia is broken down into different phases,Lohman(early emergent Mississippian)to late Stirling phase and a couple in between each phase representing a distinct development that occurred at Cahokia.A book could undoubtedly be written on each of these phases alone. In even the earliest emergent phase Cahokia localities were already controlling nearby villages.As proof the author offers evidence from waste deposits(directly linked to this phase),that the "most desirable cuts of deer meat were being consumed at the Cahokia site".The author carefully uses this type of evidence and alot more examples to show the progression from early to late phases. There is also a well explained chapter on pottery that leaves on in awe.Since reading this book I can imagine the immense numbers of potters employed in this never ending labor,it must have struck one as one entered Cahokia during this period.I had previously imagined hunters filling the plaza with hunting or war trophies as a never ending game of Chunkey progresses in the plaza.Now I see the plaza covered with thousands of incised jars filled with about anything a person could think of. Pauketat also straightens out,using archaeological evidence,the question of populations of these Mississippian towns. In the 60's,it was said that Cahokia was a town of 38,000.Now that figure has been vastly downgraded as the Mississippian culture has been separated into phases and at its peak the population of Cahokia,was only a few thousand.Lastly Pauketat challenges the power and influence of these chieftanships,in actuality they controlled only a small local area and would have been in constant competition with other high ranking villages in the areas.There were apparently numerous rises and falls before the sites were abandoned permanently in the 1400's.Could it be the ceremonial complex at Cahokia no longer met the needs of the people who supported it?I have read previously in other works that the American Indian,"Sundance" ceremony of the plains Indians was probably instituted at Cahokia and as tribes abandoned this site and went west,they took this ceremony with them.The book is a fascinating read though i will admit i had trouble understanding the graphs and still don't.I had also never realized how many mounds were on the other side of East St. Louis and across the river where the city of St. Louis resides.Between the looting and destruction of so many of the mounds.one could wonder if a true picture of the Missippian culture around Cahokia could ever be completely accurate,but this book is a fresh attempt at it.