resume relations with their husbands. Women also knew that
breast-feeding could delay the next pregnancy; some chose
to breast-feed their own babies for this reason. Wet nurses
might live with the family, or they might come to the house
for regular feedings. Babies were nursed for two years or so,
with solids gradually introduced during this period.
About one-fourth of Roman babies died of various ill-
nesses before the age of one, but young children were not the
only people at risk of sudden death. Romans of all ages were
prone to dying of various illnesses for which there were no
treatments as well as of accidents and injuries from war. Ro-
man families were not surprised when their members died
young. Despite this fact, there is ample evidence that Romans
found the deaths of their loved ones just as tragic as mod-
ern people do. Th ey spent a great deal of money on elaborate
funerals, hiring actors to portray dead family members in a
procession through the city streets.
Both boys and girls of wealthy people spent their early
childhood in the home nursery in the care of women. Th ey
usually slept in the nursery until they were about 12 years old
and could be given rooms of their own. Poorer children slept
in much closer quarters, all inhabitants of a dwelling sharing
a room. Many wealthy mothers employed slaves as caretakers
for their young children. Corporal punishment was a com-
mon means of enforcing discipline.
THE AMERICAS
BY ANGELA HERREN
While we know little about family life in ancient North and
South America, archaeological evidence gives us some indi-
cation of how communities developed. Studies of residential
groupings suggest that families of the ancient Americas be-
gan to shift from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles with the de-
velopment of agricultural practices. Many families lived in
small villages or hamlets, and some larger populations with
elaborate communal civic and religious spaces developed.
In the four corners region of the American Southwest,
the area where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico
meet, a lifestyle of hunting and gathering prevailed for the
fi rst millennium b.c.e. Th e ancestors of the Hohokam, Mo-
gollon, and Anasazi peoples fi shed the streams and rivers
and hunted elk, deer, antelope, rabbits, and other local ani-
mals. Seasonal gathering of nuts, berries, cacti, and other
fl ora rounded out the early diet. In the fi rst centuries c.e.
the cultivation of maize and squash began to supplement the
indigenous diet, and “pit house” villages sprang up around
these agricultural areas. For example, the Mimbres people, a
branch of the Mogollon culture of southwestern New Mexico,
began establishing pit-house villages of 10 to 15 households
around 200 c.e. Over the next thousand years more perma-
nent architectural forms developed, and many of these early
settlements expanded into communities of 200 to 300 people
as local populations grew and additional families adopted a
more sedentary lifestyle.
In ancient South America most families lived in small
hamlets and villages, but larger residential settlements grew
up around some of the more elaborate ritual centers. Like
later Andean cultures, early societies probably maintained
a moiety structure, divided into two separate, unequal but
complementary parts. Families engaged in activities appro-
priate to their position in a stratifi ed society.
At Chavín de Huántar, a highland site that fl ourished be-
tween 900 and 200 b.c.e., Andean families survived by hunt-
ing deer, herding llamas, and growing important staple crops
like maize and potatoes. In addition to subsistence activities,
many families contributed labor and artistic skills that led
to the construction and decoration of the site’s Old Temple
(900–500 b.c.e.) and New Temple (500–200 b.c.e.). As society
turned increasingly to Chavín’s deities to maintain their sub-
sistence economy, most families probably engaged in com-
munal ritual activity to some extent.
Th e necropolises, or cemeteries, of Paracas culture (ca.
700 b.c.e.–200 c.e.), discovered along the south coast of Peru,
provide information about the stratifi cation of Andean so-
ciety. Twentieth-century excavations along the sandy desert
coastline revealed hundreds of mummy bundles buried in
shallow shaft tombs. Paracas communities placed the body of
a deceased family member in a fetal position within a basket
and wrapped it in layer upon layer of textiles. Th e quality of
the textiles, the size of the mummy bundles, and the goods
and off erings wrapped in the bundles indicate a strong social
hierarchy. Groupings of individuals in burial may indicate fa-
milial or social relationships.
As they had at Chavín de Huántar, early Andeans built
residential structures near important ceremonial buildings
at the site of Moche (ca. 1–600 c.e.) on the north coast of
Peru. Between two large mud-brick pyramids known as
the Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna, archaeologists un-
earthed a series of housing compounds. Plazas and streets
connected the patios and rooms where Moche families
lived and worked. Moche ceramics depict the basic forms
of housing. Using construction techniques still employed
today, the Moche built adobe structures as well as simple
houses of matting supported by poles. Using a naturalistic
representational style, the Moche created tens of thousands
of ceramic vessels that document many aspects of Moche
life. Images of women weav ing, ma le and fema le copulation,
and childbirth may represent some aspects of daily family
life.
Th e highland site of Tia huanaco (ca. 300 b.c.e.–1100 c.e.)
contains one of the largest residential groupings of the an-
cient Americas. Archaeologists estimate populations as high
as 30,000 to 60,000. Most families lived outside the moat that
surrounded Tiahuanaco’s ceremonial core. Only the highest
political and religious practitioners occupied the city center.
Excavations indicate that during the period of around 400–
1100 c.e., residential neighborhoods, like the ceremonial
core, were oriented to the cardinal directions. Archaeologists
theorize that Tiahuanaco society consisted of three classes: afamily: The Americas 457