or “Made People.” Th ese were ritual leaders who earned their
position through their skills and service to the community.
Th ey served as intermediaries between the earthly and spiri-
tual realms. Th ese people achieved their position by climb-
ing through ranks or orders, starting with the “scalp” society
and continuing through the “hunt,” “warm clown,” and “bear
medicine” societies. Th ese “societies” were in the nature of
fraternal orders. At the bottom of the social order were the
Dry Food People. Th ese were ordinary citizens who had no
offi cial position. Th e Made People could choose to select ritual
assistants from among the Dry Food People. While serving as
assistants these people acted as mediators between the Dry
Food People and the Made People. Th e key point is that rank
and prestige were earned by service and skill, not birthright.MESOAMERICAN SOCIETY
Th e most extensive archaeological record in the Americas
exists for the people of Mesoamerica (Mexico and parts of
Central America) beginning about 2500 b.c.e., although
the roots of these civilizations extended even farther back
in time. Some Mesoamerican civilizations were highly ad-
vanced. Th ey built immense cities—cities larger than were,
for example, Paris or London at the time the fi rst Europeans
arrived in the Americas—and had many of the characteristics
usually thought of as belonging to modern societies, includ-
ing government bureaucracies, systems of writing, calendars,
sophisticated art and architecture. Because of the depth and
detail of the historical and archaeological record, historians
know more about the social organization of the Mesoameri-
can cultures than they do about those of other ancient Amer-
ican civilizations.
Between roughly 5000 and 2500 b.c.e. life in Mesoamer-
ica began to change dramatically. Th e major change was a shift
from hunter-gatherer societies to societies whose major source
of food was cultivated plants. Plant cultivation required an
entirely new way of life, for agriculture demands that people
remain in one place for all or much of the year, rather than
roaming from one place to another in search of game.
When people settle to grow food and tend plots of land,
they form communities, and some of these communities
eventually grow into cities. Th e cities, however, cannot pro-
vide their own food, so they come to rely on the surplus grown
by surrounding rural areas. Th is surplus supports a larger
and growing class of priests, artists, engineers, civil servants,
and others who are not directly involved in the production of
food. Further, it supports the existence of an elite that holds
power, making decisions for the community as a whole. Th e
result in the ancient Americas was the development among
these cultures of a social order that diff ered from that of
their hunter-gatherer ancestors, a social order that included a
high-level class or ruling elites, a middle class of artisans and
craft smen, and a lower class of farmers and peasants.
Historians are not certain why this change took place. One
theory emphasizes population growth: A larger number of
people rendered hunting and gathering no longer practical, forhunter-gatherer bands would be stumbling across one another,
leading to competition and to the depletion of game. Others at-
tribute the shift to ecological change. Much of the Mesoameri-
can region became more arid at this time, requiring people to
fi nd ways to produce and store their own food supply and to
domesticate plants that could survive in the more desertlike
climate. Th e best example is corn, which was developed from
a wild plant (though botanists are not sure which plant). Over
time people experimented with seeds from corn plants, devel-
oped varieties that could grow in the area’s unique conditions,
and turned corn into a major subsistence crop.
In discussing ancient Mesoamerica, historians conven-
tionally identify three major periods. Th e fi rst, the Preclassic,
extended from about 1800 b.c.e. to about 150 c.e. (Th e Classic
and Postclassic Periods came later and gave rise to the great
civilizations of the Aztec and the Maya.) Th e Preclassic Pe-
riod itself is typically divided into three subperiods: the Early
Preclassic, from 1800 to about 1200 b.c.e.; the Middle Pre-
classic, from 1200 to 400 b.c.e.; and the Late Preclassic, from
400 b.c.e. to 150 c.e. Th ese dates are approximate, and each
Mesoamerican culture underwent changes at its own pace.
Th e divisions, though, enable historians to make meaningful
generalizations about the social organization and other char-
acteristics of Mesoamerican culture.
During the Early Preclassic Period social organization
remained much as it was during the region’s prehistory. Cul-
tures tended to be egalitarian, without any rigid social orderDouble-spout-and-bridge vessel with pelican and fi sh, Nasca culture
of Peru (ca. 200 b.c.e.-ca. 600 c.e.); birds played an important role for
Nasca people, and bird feathers were used as ornaments for people of
high social rank. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)social organization: The Americas 10410895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1041 1041 10/10/07 2:30:51 PM