With access to religious and civic activities, villagers and townsfolk had greater access to wealth, prestige goods, and information about both secular and religious matters. Their access to the elite presented them with opportunities not available to commoners located some distance from the village or town. .
Religion was a very important part of the Mississippians lives, many practiced southern Mississippian people practiced a religion that anthropologists call the southern cult. This cult borrowed many customs and symbols from Mexican Indians religions. For example, southern cult artwork includes a flying human figure that has wing like tattoos around the eyes. Artist also decorated many articles with spiders and woodpeckers, which they believed had special powers. Human sacrifice was also a big part of there religion. .
The Mississippian people adopted many customs from the Indians of what is now Mexico, with whom they traded. Like the Mexican Indians, Mississippians built large, flat-topped temple mounds in the center of their cities. .
At Cahokia, mounds, plazas, burial and areas segregated from residences, were all part of ritual activities. Towns usually had anywhere from one to twenty flat-topped temple mounds, which served as platforms for temples or other important structures, such as the houses of the elite. Structures including, house mounds, and larger and more numerous sweat lodges indicate more civic and religious functions occurred here than in the hamlets.
The Chief Priests were the rulers and governors of the fortified towns. These leaders lived in temples atop large earthen mounds overlooking a central ceremonial plaza. Lesser leaders might also live on mounds, but the tallest would be for the temple of the Chief Priest. Upon the death of the Chief Priest, his temple would be destroyed and another layer of earth would be added for his successor. Ones social standing would be reflected in how close his home was to the plaza.
