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family: The Americas 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 illnesses 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 Roman 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 modern people They 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 They 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 common 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 indication of how communities developed Studies of residential groupings suggest that families of the ancient Americas began to shift from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles with the development 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 first millennium b.c.e The ancestors of the Hohokam, Mogollon, and Anasazi peoples fished the streams and rivers and hunted elk, deer, antelope, rabbits, and other local animals Seasonal gathering of nuts, berries, cacti, and other flora rounded out the early diet In the first 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 permanent 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 457 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 appropriate to their position in a stratified society At Chavín de Huántar, a highland site that flourished between 900 and 200 b.c.e., Andean families survived by hunting 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 subsistence economy, most families probably engaged in communal ritual activity to some extent The 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 stratification of Andean society 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 The quality of the textiles, the size of the mummy bundles, and the goods and offerings wrapped in the bundles indicate a strong social hierarchy Groupings of individuals in burial may indicate familial 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 unearthed 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 weaving, male and female copulation, and childbirth may represent some aspects of daily family life The highland site of Tiahuanaco (ca 300 b.c.e.–1100 c.e.) contains one of the largest residential groupings of the ancient 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: a
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