Gods of Thunder

The earth's climate warmed from the 9th through the 13th centuries CE. Named the Medieval Warm Period, it was a time of great historical change in precolonial North America, as evidenced through archaeology. While scholars have previously suggested the existence of long-distance ties between the civilizations of Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Mississippi valley, no one until now has argued that climate change and religion--not trade--were the reasons for these far-flung connections. Pauketat argues that a common supernatural being--a Wind-that-brings-rain or Thunderer" deity--emerged because of climatic factors to drive the development of a series of interrelated religious movements across the continent. These movements were based around a common circular shrine or pyramid in or on which people worshipped the powers of the wind and rain--the essential life-giving forces of global climate"--