The book presents a detailed account of the transformation in social organization that came with the adoption of subsistence agriculture by the foragers who lived in one resource rich area of the planet (the Lower Great Lakes). The technique used is lexical reconstruction, correlated where possible with archaeological data. My research suggests that in simple societies whose politics are all kin based, the kinship terminology serves as an oral constitution, amendments to which involve new terms with pertinent etymologies. By carefully noting the etymologies of innovations, one can reconstruct prehistoric social change.