This volume explores political changes in chiefdoms, specifically how complex chiefdoms emerge and collapse, and how this process - called cycling - can be examined using archaeological, ethnohistoric, paleoclimatic, paleosubsistence and physical anthropological data. The focus for the research is the prehistoric and initial contact-era Mississippian chiefdoms of the Southeastern United States, specifically the societies occupying the Savannah River basin from circa AD 1000 to 1600. This regional focus and the multidisciplinary nature of the investigation provides a solid introduction to the Southeastern Mississippian archaeological record and the study of cultural evolution in general.