Description
By Timothy R. Pauketat
This ambitious book provides a theoretical explanation of how prehistoric Cahokia became a stratified society, and ultimately the pinnacle of Native American cultural achievement north of Mexico. Considering Cahokia in terms of class struggle, Pauketat claims that the political consolidation in this region of the Mississippi Valley happened quite suddenly, around A.D. 1000, after which the lords of Cahokia innovated strategies to preserve their power and ultimately emerged as divine chiefs. The new ideas and new data in this volume will invigorate the debate surrounding one of the most important developments in North American prehistory.
“Pauketat’s thought-provoking book adds a new dimension to our ongoing attempts to explain the emergence of rank societies. A must-read.”
—American Anthropologist
“Pauketat has set a benchmark for future synthetic treatments in the region…Ascent of Chiefs stands as a welcome challenge to address complementary issues in a comparable fashion.”
—American Antiquity
Timothy R. Pauketat is Associate Professor of Anthropolgy at the Universoty of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
The University of Alabama Press, 1994
ISBN: 978-0-8173-0728-8
