Promoting bottom-up approaches to social archaeology

Wunderlich, Maria; Heitz, Caroline; Hinz, Martin; Furholt, Marin (2023). Promoting bottom-up approaches to social archaeology. In: Heitz, Caroline; Wunderlich, Maria; Hinz, Martin; Furholt, Martin (eds.) Rethinking Neolithic Societies. New Perspectives on Social Relations, Political Organization and Cohabitation. Open Series in Prehistoric Archaeology: Vol. 5 (pp. 9-23). Sidestone Press

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Traditional ideas about Neolithic societies were shaped by questionable premises. The modern concept of the social and cultural coherence of residence groups and the ethnic interpretation of “archaeological cultures” fostered ideas of static and homogeneous social entities with fixed borders. Farming – as the core of the Neolithic way of life – was, in most archaeologists’ minds, associated with sedentariness rather than with mobility. Furthermore, the widespread use of evolutionist theoretical frameworks led to the assumption of a universally growing social hierarchisation in the course of prehistory. Ultimately, such “top-down” perspectives deprived individuals and groups of genuine agency and creativity. In recent years, a wide array of empirical data on social practices related to material culture and settlement dynamics, (inter)regional entanglements and spatial mobility based on stable isotope analysis, aDNA, and other factors were produced. Yet the question of possible inferences regarding social organisation has not been sufficiently addressed.
Therefore, the aim of this volume is to study social practices and configurations in Neolithic societies based on such results, mainly from bottom-up perspectives. The contributions assembled here discuss how data can be methodologically combined on the basis of corresponding theories, as well as the potential of such bottom-up approaches to infer models of social organisation that may do justice to the diversity and dynamism of Neolithic societies. This includes perspectives on mobility, social complexity, the importance of (political) interests, and kinship factors.

Item Type:	Book Section (Book Chapter)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of Archaeological Sciences 06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of Archaeological Sciences > Pre- and Early History
UniBE Contributor:	Heitz, Caroline Franziska, Hinz, Martin
Subjects:	900 History > 930 History of ancient world (to ca. 499)
ISSN:	2701-2867
ISBN:	978-94-6427-068-6
Series:	Open Series in Prehistoric Archaeology
Publisher:	Sidestone Press
Funders:	[4] Swiss National Science Foundation
Projects:	Projects 194326 not found.
Language:	English
Submitter:	Caroline Franziska Heitz
Date Deposited:	31 Jan 2024 08:45
Last Modified:	31 Jan 2024 08:45
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/152463