"Cahokia, with over 100 mounds, has generally been viewed as the most complex Mississippian chiefdom, perhaps approaching the level of a state. In this view, the huge mounds at Cahokia are seen as statements about power and politics. Byers argues against this view, arguing instead that the constructions at Cahokia are fundamentally about rituals structured by nonkin 'cult' institutions." - Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society "Byers says Cahokia is not a place where chiefs at the apex of a political or religious hierarchy constructed monuments to their power. Instead, he argues, Cahokia is a place where multiple separate 'cults' constructed facilities for rituals that were intended to ameliorate the increasing 'pollution' of the world caused by the increasing human use and modification of the landscape.... The virtue of Byers's book is that it challenges some of the taken-for-granteds that figure in other accounts of Cahokian society. This is a careful and extended piece of scholarship from an original thinker." - Cambridge Archaeological Journal "A brilliantly original, innovative interpretation of the site and Amerindian late prehistory, and should be examined by every professional archaeologist and historian. Summing Up: Essential." - Choice"
