Characteristics of Chiefdoms

Chiefdoms are regionally centralized organizations of local communities. where the rank of an individual is determined by his genealogical distance from the highest ranked member of the society - the chief; and the rank of the local community depends upon the rank of its highest ranking member, or local chief. The order is based on a hierarchical series of social and territorial groups - the village, the district, and the chiefdom. Thus, the highest ranking member of each local community is the local chief or headman; the highest ranking local chief is the district chief, and the highest ranking district chief is the paramount chief. This division can be reflected in a division of settlement size with a distinct gradient in size between local and regional centers.

Rulers and ruled alike were caught up in a social fabric of mutual obligation reinforced by the dual threads of economic interdependence and kin allegiances. Chiefs. at all levels, had broad rights of request for food, goods and services, while being generally responsible for the group's welfare. Each chief, sub-chief, or village headman served as the local leader as well as the conduit for decisions made at higher levels. These decisions involved him in the recruitment of labor for socially beneficial projects, the organization of religious festivals, and the mediation of disputes between group members or defense against enemies.

For whatever reason of social or religious sanction, the chiefly lineages achieved both status and authority within the far flung net of communities that make up the regional system. The chief can have a retinue of wives, retainers, and assistants, and contact with him may be restricted by elaborate rules of protocol. The life of the chief - birth. marriage, and especially death - were usually accompanied by public ritual. Among the Natchez, one of the few prehistoric Mississippian societies that survived into historic times, the death of the chief or a member of his immediate family signaled a period of mourning during which time the temple and residences of the elite were burned. then covered with new layers of earth. Retainers and kinsmen often mutilated themselves, committed suicide, or were slain as part of the mortuary ritual.