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Introduction



Elaborate Priest-Chief's house on Monks Mound. Only important
people had the resources to physically elevate their position by
constructing and living on mounds.
Some Mississippians were greatly richer, more revered, and marshaled more economic, social, political, and religious power than most of the population. While this is true of most societies, it is also true that most eastern woodland Native American societies prior to the Mississippian were much more egalitarian. The presence of a small group of people of high status is revealed special mortuary practices, houses larger than most, and civic structures.
Specifically, most archaeologists agree that Mississippian society was a complex chiefdom. Ethnohistorical accounts, mortuary practices, and symbolism and gender in art indicate the chief was almost always male. Women closely related to the chief certainly had high status, but rarely became chiefs.



Simple commoner's house at a small hamlet. Most people lived
in similar houses that were not elevated on mounds. Note that
most reconstructions of Mississippian houses depict waddle
and daub walls, even though there is little evidence for this
construction technique in the American Bottom.

A chiefdom has several characteristics, many or all of which may be present:
  1. It is a ranked society in which one's prestige and authority are determined by how closely related that person is to the chief and his lineage or clan.
  2. The chief lacks a consistently available and effective means of physical coercion. In other words, a chiefdom lacks an army or police to enforce the chief's will by physical means.
  3. One or two levels of administratice control is found above the common local community. That is, chiefs have at their disposal administrative control associated with the settlement and mound center of their residence, and some varying control of the smaller settlements, perhaps administered by lesser chiefs who are often his relations.
  4. Sufficient wealth is controlled by the ruling elite to employ craft specialists.
  5. In most chiefdoms both political and religious responsibilities are closely intertwined. The chief and religious leader are often one in the same. Not surprisingly, the chief and his family are revered as almost god-like. Among the Mississippian-like Natchez (1600s - 1700s), for example, the chief was referred to as "the brother of the sun."


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