Almost overnight, around A.D. 750 - 850, maize farming was apparently adopted by Emergent Mississippian family farmers (HDYK-ECON). The swiftness by which maize agriculture was adopted suggests that it played a major role in shaping the subsistence, political economy, society, and culture of American Bottom Mississippians. Moreover, the rapid adoption of maize agriculture, probably on the order of 100 years, indicates that there was something about this new food source that promoted agricultural intensification and a social reorganization. How was maize different from other previously domesticated weedy plants? How did it benefit each family or household? Why were new social and economic behaviors spawned by reliance on this reliable food source?