ABSTRACT
This chapter generally picks up from where Chapter 5 on North American Paleoamericans leaves off. Beginning with some of the earliest mound-builders at Poverty Point, the chapter then moves forward to the Adena and Hopewell mound-building cultures, including discussion of effigy mounds and pipes. The next section offers an extended exploration of the Mississippian culture, with a focus on Cahokia. The importance of farming, trade, and astronomical observations and their intersection with mound-building is covered. Elements of the use of religion as a method for sociopolitical control, especially in the Mississippian Culture, serves as an important theme.
