Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi

Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi, by Timothy R. Pauketat, is on the history, society, and religious customs of the Cahokian people. Consisting of twelve chapters, each chapter deals with a different aspect of Cahokian society. Chapter one opens up by telling the reader how the stars in the sky played an important role in the Native American belief system. The Planet Venus was the key figure in all of this, in fact the ancient Maya believed Venus to be a god. According to the Cahokians , Venus had a dual nature, in the daytime Venus was viewed a masculine, and in the evening it was seen as feminine. In the same chapter, Pauketat lets us know about the discovery of, two hundred packed-earth mounds constructed in a five-square mile zone represented the belief systems of the Cahokian people. Historical archeology was the main reason for the discovery of two hundred earth packed mounds. At its peak, Cahokia had a population of over ten thousand, not including the people who lived in the towns surrounding the city. By the time the 1800s came around, the European Americans had already been living in North America for some time; however, many Europeans refused to acknowledge the Native American role in building these ancient mounds. Instead, they believed the mounds to been built by a race of non-Indians. Due to the preservation of Cahokia within a state park and modern highway system, many things became lost. Since many things became lost, very few archaeologists have a good understanding of Cahokia. While there may be a loss of a complete picture, archaeologists are still making progress with numerous discoveries. These discoveries bring into question long-held beliefs such as a people who were peaceful an...

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... son, erratic and subhuman, a trickster sometimes associated with the underworld as a spirit or god.

Scholars, who study these things, notice a duality in the culture, i.e. good and bad, men, and women, and so on and so forth. This book also discusses things such as who are their descendants and the use of treasure maps to discover new things. Concepts such as who the descendants are and using treasure maps to discover new things. This book was an easy read, in fact, the chapters flew by pretty quick, because they flew by quickly, I often had to re-read some sections. By making this book an easy read, Pauketat does a good job of not assuming that anyone knows about the Cahokian culture. He does however, does an excellent job of explaining things in detail. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about a Native American culture.