Daily Life

There were four important aspects concerning the Mississippians’s daily life: work, food, environment and religion.

The daily life of the Ocmulgee Indians was not only subdivided into season’s work, but also into men’s and women’s work. During cold seasons men did hunting, tool-making, skinning and made ceremonial objects. At the same time, women made pots and baskets, they run the household and collected wild food. During warm seasons men’s work included ceremonies, warfare, ball-games, construction, fishing and land clearing for farming. On the other hand, during warm seasons women were responsible for cultivation, food preparation, cooking, collecting firewood and curing skins. In addition to the Mississippians’s work, it can be assumed, that these Indians tended to work in groups. For example, men hunted and fished in groups. They also constructed buildings together , cleared land for farming and made tools and ceremonial equipment in groups. Men were involved in political and religious activities and warfare, too. The women also performed their tasks in groups. They farmed, collected wild plants and prepared the food for storage and eating together. Even running the household , making clothing and pottery were usually group activities.

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The second aspect of the Indians daily life at Ocmulgee was their food. The Mississippiann people of the Macon Plateau Period were also called "Master Farmers" because they were better farmers than their ancestors before. They raised corn, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco. Most of their food were cultivated, but they also collected wild fruits, nuts, vegetables, seeds and roots that. These food were not only used for food, but also for drink and medicine. In addition, fish were an important part of the diet in the Macon Plateau town- the river was nearby, and the fish were easy to catch below the rapids as they swam upstream to spawn. Thousand years ago, fishermen used hooks on a line, or nets weighted with sinkers. Furthermore, they ate meat. All their meat was taken from the wild. Deer were a prized catch and were usually hunted in one of two ways. Sometimes a lone hunter used a deer anther decoy to approach the wary animal. Other times, groups of hunters set fire to the undergrowth in the woods to drive the deer into the open. In both cases, the final kill was with bow and arrow. They hunted raccoons, turkeys, rabbits, beavers, squirrels and turtles.

The third aspect concerning the daily life of the Mississippians was their relationship to the environment. They valued their environment. These people knew, they had to take advantage of material resources to live. Their traditions included respect for the plants and animals they used for food and clothing. The Macon Plateau town was at the place where the hills meet the coastal plain. People living here could use the resources from the land and the river, so they had the best conditions for existing. Hence, they appreciated their environment.

Religion was the last mentioned but perhaps the most important aspect of the daily life of the Ocmulgee Indians . The people who lived in the Macon Plateau divided their world into their different worlds:

* In the Upper World , order, purity and good spirits existed. The most important "beings" in the world were the Sun, the sacred Fire, and the Eagle.

* In This World, reality and balance between man and animals existed. In this world people and mammals lived.

* In the Under World, disorder, magic, and bad spirits existed. The most important "beings" in this world were snakes, monsters, and ghosts.

In order to embrace their relation, the Mississippians spent much time in building large mounds on which they erected their temples. They also built earthlodges , where religious ceremonies took place. In the center was a sunken fire pit in which a fire was kept burning as the sacred fire. The 5o Indians, who used the temple were probably the religious and political leaders of the town. The temples on the mounds were supposed to be used during warm seasons and the earthlodge used in winter.