A big change for this time was in how people settled. In the past, people mainly lived in small groups that would periodically gather in larger groups for seasonal ceremonies. The Mississippian lifeway was very different. This is the first time when people gathered in large village groups. The villages may have had 50-100 people who lived there year-round. Farming provided the abundant food source that allowed people to live in large groups.
Wisconsin's Mississippian people built large platform mounds with surrounding villages. The site at Aztalan was even surrounded by a stockade. This may suggest that there were conflicts between the people living within the stockade and those living outside it.
Social structure also changed with the introduction of Mississippian ideas. People who lived during this time experienced social inequality as they lived under religious or political rulers. Elite individuals received special privileges and goods from far away places. They possibly lived on the platform mounds and received exotic goods.
