Pauketat portrays information in a clear and precise way by using exact examples from real life anthropology sites. One particular example is when he describes the game Chunkey: “...one of the players would throw a disk-shaped stone about the size of a modern hockey puck...a few paces into the yard would, about at the same time, chuck their playing sticks like huge darts to the rolling stone. Points were scored depending on close the sticks...landed” (41). The attention to detail when describing the game allows the reader to visualize the game, hear the loud players, and feel the overall emotion of the favorite pastime of the people of Cahokia. He actually dedicates a whole chapter to this game and the variations of it throughout time and different places (47). Anthropology and archaeology can be easily based around humans and their remains. …show more content…
It is also based around the different personalities of anthropologists and archeologists. Pauketat recognizes this throughout the book. He especially expresses this when he explains a situation regarding a dig at Cahokia: “With many archeologists working in one area under such desperate conditions, tensions soon manifested themselves. Some of the crew leaders, such as [James] Porter’s good friend Charles Bareis...felt as if he’d been tricked” (58). Personalities can be big in any job, but when workers are cramped into a small space for multiple hours a day under the hot sun, there can sometimes not be enough room for everyone. In any archeology project, people's actions and thoughts can be a burden. The author makes this clear throughout all of his examples of archeological digs and really describes the secular problems that can come with a job like this one. When discussing specific mounds and archaeological areas, Pauketat uses actual analogies and information from the projects that have happened throughout history. For example, he especially goes into detail when discussing the findings at Mound 72, directly quoting the notes of a bio-archeologist named Jerome Rose: “Evidence of violence also distinguishes these burials from the other mass graves. Three individuals had been decapitated before being thrown into the pit. The heads were thrown in before the burials were covered” (76). This account of the information is cited in the back of the book as coming directly from “Mortuary Data and Analysis” in The Mound 72 Area: Dedicated and Sacred Space in Early Cahokia (179). This shows that the author took the time to find the actual information and cite the work of others. He does this throughout the entirety of the book, using the experiences of others to account for a main point in the book. This fact is a direct link to his credibility and overall accountability to his work in the rest of the book. As mentioned before, Pauketat makes essential use out of detail in all aspects of the senses. In one instance, he describes Cahokia in its