  We present a comparative study of the physical properties and the spatial
distribution of column density peaks in two Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC), the
Pipe Nebula and Orion A, which exemplify opposite cases of star cluster
formation stages. The density peaks were extracted from dust extinction maps
constructed from Herschel/SPIRE farinfrared images. We compare the distribution
functions for dust temperature, mass, equivalent radius and mean volume density
of peaks in both clouds, and made a more fair comparison by isolating the less
active Tail region in Orion A and by convolving the Pipe Nebula map to simulate
placing it at a distance similar to that of the Orion Complex. The peak mass
distributions for Orion A, the Tail, and the convolved Pipe, have similar
ranges, sharing a maximum near 5 M$_\odot$, and a similar power law drop above
10 M$_\odot$. Despite the clearly distinct evolutive stage of the clouds, there
are very important similarities in the physical and spatial distribution
properties of the column density peaks, pointing to a scenario where they form
as a result of uniform fragmentation of filamentary structures across the
various scales of the cloud, with density being the parameter leading the
fragmentation, and with clustering being a direct result of thermal
fragmentation at different spatial scales. Our work strongly supports the idea
that the formation of clusters in GMC could be the result of the primordial
organization of pre-stellar material
