Life in Neolithic Farming Communities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Life in Neolithic Farming Communities

      • Ian Kuijt

      Pages 3-13

3. Regional Issues, Settlement Practices, and Sedentism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-17

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   2. Early Sedentism in the Near East

      • Anna Belfer-Cohen, Ofer Bar-Yosef

      Pages 19-38

   3. Hallan Çemi and Early Village Organization in Eastern Anatolia

      • Michael Rosenberg, Richard W. Redding

      Pages 39-62

   4. Households in Transition

      • Brian F. Byrd

      Pages 63-102

4. Organization of Social Relations: Mortuary Ritual, Social Differentiation, and Settlement Systems

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 99-102

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   2. The Quick and the Dead

      • Nigel Goring-Morris

      Pages 103-136

   3. Keeping the Peace

      • Ian Kuijt

      Pages 137-164

   4. Ritual and Social Structure at Neolithic ’Ain Ghazal

      • Gary O. Rollefson

      Pages 165-190

   5. Is Size Important?

      • Frank Hole

      Pages 191-210

   6. Villages on the Edge

      • Alan H. Simmons

      Pages 211-230

5. Social Relations and Material Culture: Symbolism and Meaning

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 231-233

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   2. The Symbolic Foundations of the Neolithic Revolution in the Near East

      • Jacques Cauvin

      Pages 235-252

   3. Çatal Höyük in Context

      • Mary M. Voigt

      Pages 253-294

   4. The Pottery Neolithic Period

      • Estelle Orrelle, Avi Gopher

      Pages 295-308

6. Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 309-309

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   2. Near Eastern Neolithic Research

      • Ian Kuijt

      Pages 311-322

7. Back Matter

   Pages 323-325

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Drawing on both the results of recent arhaeological research as well as anthropological theory, leading experts synthesize current thinking on the nature of and variation within Neolithic social arrangements. The authors analyze archaeological data within a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives to reconstruct key aspects of ritual practices, labor organization, and collective social identity at the scale of the household, community, and region.

• Evolution
• Neolithic
• collective social identity
• farming community
• labor organization
• mortuary ritual
• ritual practices
• sedentism
• settlement systems
• social differentiation
• social identity
• social organization

"The book should be required reading for anyone interested in the Neolithic."
(Antiquity, 75:289, 2001)
"The list of participants is an impressive "who's who" of research on the Neolithic Near East. This collection of articles presents a fair and clear picture of the research currently being carried out in the discipline, and it is convenient to have them together in the same volume. Scholars and students will find the data presented about various sites and the comprehensive discussions very useful."
(American Antiquity, 66:4, 2001)
"With this volume, Kuijt and his colleagues have succeeded in bringing fully into the light of academic enquiry the debate about the significance of social and symbolic elements in the Neolithic transformation. Future considerations of this episode that focus exclusively on economic and environmental issues will subsequently fall significantly short of the mark."
(Roger Matthews, Institute of Archaeology, University College London; Journal of Anthropological Research, 58, 2002)

 

"The editor has brought together a distinguished line-up of regional specialists. There is much here to stimulate thought." (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 9:3)

• University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame

  Ian Kuijt

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