Schematic diagram of Mississippian economic spheres
As the above questions suggest, the Mississippian economy seems to have involved much more than simple family-based subsistence practices. But just how much more involved was it?
As is the case with many modern economies, the Mississippian economy undoubtedly operated on several levels - from the integration of individual chores to form a household economy - to the integration of households, hamlets, and small villages into a local economy - to a regional economy where the activities of numerous mound centers were integrated - to the "global" economy in which groups throughout the eastern United States interacted through the exchange of goods, materials, and ideas. Moreover, it must be realized that many behaviors and decisions in each sphere related directly to the Mississippian political economy which defined control, access, and distribution of knowledge, prestige, resources, and labor.