Baird, D; Fairbairn, A; Martin, L; (2017) The animate house, the institutionalization of the household in Neolithic central Anatolia. World Archaeology , 49 (5) pp. 753-776. 10.1080/00438243.2016.1215259.

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Abstract

This paper explores the effectiveness of a domestic mode of production model in explaining the development of Neolithic households in South-west Asia, using evidence from the site of Boncuklu in central Anatolia. We present evidence that Boncuklu households were institutionalized through repetitive practice, highly structured and symbolically charged domestic activity, ritual and symbolism stressing the animate and transcendental nature of the house, relating to continuity and idiosyncratic identity display. The Boncuklu evidence also suggests supra-household groups, possibly bound together by certain landscape exploitation activities, were reinforced by their own distinctive ritual practices and symbolism in parallel with and probably in a certain tension with the cohesive tendencies of individual households, even in the absence of evidence of monumental non-domestic communal structures seen at some Neolithic sites. This suggests the domestic mode of production model does not apply well to Neolithic South-west Asia, certainly for long time periods and in certain regions.

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