Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T01:59:32.030Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Enchainment commodification and gender in the Balkan Copper Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

John Chapman
John Chapman*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, Great Britain
Get access

Abstract

Two strategies for social relations are defined for the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of south-eastern Europe: enchainment and commodification. Enchained relations are based upon inalienable objects exchanged between relations, while barter relations are concerned with the re-contextualisation of exotic objects into local communities. The metaphor of fragmented artefacts is explored in relation to enchained relations, while those complete objects subject to formal deposition are interpreted as symbolising integral social relations. Fragmentation analysis conducted for a variety of materials indicates the varying potential of fired clay and metals (copper and gold) for relations based on enchainment.

The social practices surrounding fragmentation and structured/formal deposition are explored in two socia-spatial contexts - the domestic arena and the mortuary arena. Fragmentation of figurines is analysed at the late Copper Age tell of Goljamo Delcevo, in north-eastern Bulgaria. By contrast, three north-eastern Bulgarian Copper Age cemeteries are analysed to examine the extent to which material culture is used to express gendered social competition in the mortuary domain. It is proposed that the tension between enchained relations and commodification is one of the key factors in the generation of dynamic hange in the Balkan Copper Age, at the time of the Varna cemetery.

Deux stratégies des sont définies pour les relations sociales à l'époqe du néolithique et chalcolithique de l'Europe du Sud Est: l'enchaînment et la conversion des objets en marchandises. Les relations enchaînées sont basées sur des objets inaliénables échangés entre relations, alors que les rapports échangés sont concernés par la ré-contextualisation d'objets exotiques dans les communautés locales. Le métaphore des objets fragmentés est examinée par rapport aux relations enchainées, alors que ces objets complets soumis à une déposition structurée sent interprétés comme étant symbole d'intégration des relations sociales. La fragmentation de l'analyse conduite par une quantilé de matériaux indique le potentiel variable des céramiques et des métaux (en cuivre et en or) pour des relations basées sur l'enchaînement.

Les practiques sociales concernant la fragmentation et la déposition structurée sent étudiées dans deux contextes socio-spatiaux: l'arène domestique et l'arène mortuaire. Le morcéllement des figurines est analysé à la fin de l'âge de cuivre en Bulgarie du Nord Est raconté par Goljamo Delcevo. Par contraste, trois cimetières du Nord Est de la Bulgarie à l'âge de cuivre sont analysées pour évaluer l'étendre par laquelle la culture matérielle est utilisée pour exprimer la compétition sociale des sexes dans le domaine mortuaire. Il est suggéré que la tension entre les relations enchaînées et les matière premières est un des faiteurs-clé dans les transformations dynamiques à l'âge de cuivre dans les Balkans à l'époque du cimetière de Varna.

Es werden zwei Strategien von Sozialbeziehungen in der Jungsteinzeit und Kupferzeit in Südosteuropa voneinander abgegrenzt ‘Verkettung’ und ‘Kommodifizierung’. Verkettete Beziehungen basieren auf unveräußerlichen Gegenständen, die zwischen Verwandten ausgetauscht werden, während Tauschbeziehungen die Rekontextualisierung exotischer Gegenstände in lokale Gemeinschaften betreffen. In Bezug auf verkettete Beziehungen wird die Metapher fragmentierter Artefakte ausgelotet, während jene vollständigen Gegenstände, die formalen Deponierungen ausgesetzt sind, als Symbole für vollkommene Sozialbeziehungen interpretiert werden. Fragmentationsanalysen, die für verschiedene Materialien durchgeführt worden sind, zeigen das unterschiedliche Potential von gebranntem Ton und Metallen (Kupfer und Gold) für auf Verkettung basierende Beziehungen.

Die sozialen Praktiken, die die Fragmentierung und strukturierte/formale Deponierung umgeben, werden in zwei sozial-räumlichen Zusammenhängen untersucht: dem des Hauses und dem der Bestattungen. Die Fragmentierung von Figurinen wird an Material vom spätkupferzeitlichen Siedlungshügel Goljamo Delcevo in Nordostbulgarien analysiert. Als Kontrast werden drei kupferzeitliche nordostbulgarische Friedhöfe auf die Frage hin analysiert, wieviel materielle Kultur dazu benutzt wird, um ‘geschlechtlichen’ sozialen Wettbewerb im Bereich der Bestattungen auszudrücken. Es wird vorgeschlagen, daß die Spannung zwischen verketteter Beziehungen und Kommodifizierung einer der Schlüsselfaktoren bei der Erzeugung von dynamischem Wandel während der Kupferzeit (zur Zeit des Freidhofs von Varna) auf dem Balkan ist.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of European Archaeology , Volume 4 , 1996 , pp. 203 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angelov, N. 1959. Zlatnono sykrovyshche ot Hotnica. Arkheologiya (Sofia) 1.1-2:38–46.Google Scholar
Bachvarov, K., 1994. Hronologogichni aspekti na neolitnite pogrebalni obredi v Trakiya. Godishnik na Department Arheologiya (Nov Bulgarski Universitet) I: 263–269.Google Scholar
Bailey, Douglass, 1994. Reading prehistoric figurines as individuals. World Archaeology 25 (3): 321–331.Google Scholar
Barrett, John, 1994. Fragments from Antiquity. An Archaeology of Sodai Life in Britain, 2900–1200 BC. Oxford, Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, 1981. Men and machines. In Knorr-Cetina, K. and Cicourel, A. V. (eds), Advances in Social Theory and Methodology: towards an integration of micro- and macro-sociologies: 304–317. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, 1985. The genesis of the concepts of Habitus and of Field. Socio-criticism 2 (2): 11–24.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, 1988. Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory 7 (1): 14–25.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, 1990. La domination masculine. Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 84: 2–31.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre and Wacquant, L. J. D., 1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1982. The ‘Secondary Products Revolution’ and the limitations of the Neolithic. Bulletin of the University of London Institute of Archaeology 19: 107–122.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1983. Meaning and illusion in the study of burial in Balkan prehistory. In Poulter, A. (ed.), Ancient Bulgaria, vol. 1: 1–45. Nottingham: University of Nottingham Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1989. The early Balkan village. Varia Archaeologica Hungarica 2: 33–53.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1990. Social inequality on Bulgarian tells and the Varna problem. In Samson, R. (ed.), The Sodai Archaeology of Houses: 49–98. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1991. The creation of social arenas in the Neolithic and Copper Age of south east Europe: the case of Varna. In Garwood, P., Jennings, D., Skeates, R. and Toms, J. (eds), Sacred and Profane: 152–171. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1993. Social power in the Iron Gates Mesolithic. In Chapman, J. C. and Dolukhanov, P. (eds), Cultural Transformations and Interactions in Eastern Europe: 61–106. Aldershot: Avebury (Worldwide Archaeology Series 5).Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1994. The living, the dead and the ancestors: time, life cycles and the mortuary domain in later European prehistory. In Davies, J. (ed.), Ritual and Remembrance. Responses to Death in Human Societies: 40–85. Sheffield, Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1995. Social power in the early farming communities of eastern Hungary – perspectives from the upper Tisza region. A Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 36: 79–99.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, 1996. Changing gender relations in the later prehistory of eastern Hungary. In Moore, J. and Scott, E. (eds), Invisible People and Processes. Writing women and children into European archaeology: 131–149. Leicester: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, John, in press a. Objects and places: their value in the past. (To appear in Bailey, D. W. (ed.), ‘The Archaeology of Prestige and Wealth’. London: Routledge.)Google Scholar
Chapman, John, in press b. The fractality of personal relations in the Mesolithic and Neolithic of south east Europe. (To be published In Makkay, J. and Kertész, R. (eds), Proceedings of the Szolnok Conference, September 1996, Szolnok.)Google Scholar
Chernykh, E., 1978 Ai Bunar – a Balkan copper mine of the fourth millennium BC. Proceedings of the Prehistory Society 44: 203–217.Google Scholar
Davies, K., 1990. Women, Time and the Weaving of the Strands of Everyday Life. Aldershot Avebury.Google Scholar
Dinu, M., 1981. Clay models of wheels recently discovered in Copper Age cultures of Old Europe mid-fifth millennium B.C. Journal of Indo-European Studies 9: 1–14.Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary, 1966. Purity and Danger. An analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Dumitrescu, V., 1965. Cascioarele: a late Neolithic settlement on the lower Danube. Archeology 18: 34–40.Google Scholar
Elster, E., 1986. Tripods, plastic vessels and stands: a fragmentary collection of social ceramics. In Renfrew, C., Gimbutas, M. and Elster, E. (eds), Excavations at Sitagroi. A Prehistoric Village in Northeast Greece, vol. 1: 302–344. Los Angeles: University of California Press (Monumenta Archaeologica 13).Google Scholar
Evans, R. K., 1973. Craft Specialisation in the Balkan Peninsula. , University of California at Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Fol, A. and Lichardus, J. (eds), 1988. Macht, Herrschaft und Gold. Das Gräberfeld von Varna (Bulgarien) und die Anfänge von einer neuen europäischen Zivilisation. Saarbrücken: Moderne Galerie des Saarlands-Museum.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, Marija, 1982. The Goddesses and Gods of Old World Europe, 6500–3500 BC. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, Marija, 1986. Mythical imagery of Sitagroi society. In Renfrew, C., Gimbutas, M. and Elster, E. (eds), Excavations at Sitagroi. A Prehistoric Village in Northeast Greece, vol. 1: 225–301. Los Angeles: University of California Press (Monumenta Archaeologica 13).Google Scholar
Goldstein, L., 1981. One-dimensional archaeology and multi-dimensional people: spatial analysis and mortuary analysis. In Chapman, R., Kinnes, I. and Randsborg, K. (eds), The Archaeology of Death: 53–69. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gregory, C. A., 1982. Gifts and Commodities. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gullestad, M., 1993. Home decoration as popular culture. Constructing homes, genders and classes in Norway. In del Valle, T. (ed.), Gendered Anthropology: 128–161. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hall, N., 1992. Introduction. In Hall, N. (ed.), The New Scientist Guide to Chaos: 7–10. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Holter, H., 1976. Familjens historiska utveckling I Nordeuropa. In Holter, H. (ed.), Familjen i klassamhallet. Stockholm: Aldus.Google Scholar
Humphrey, C., 1992. Fair dealing just rewards: the ethics of barter in north-east Nepal. In Humphrey, C. and Hugh-Jones, S. (eds), Barter, Exchange and Value. An Anthropological Approach: 107–141. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ivanov, I., 1988. Die Ausgrabung des Graberfeldes von Varna. In Fol, A. and Lichardus, J. (eds), Macht, Herrschaft und Gold. Das Gräberfeld von Varna (Bulgarien) und die Anfänge von einer neuen europäischen Zivilisation: 49–66. Saarbrücken, Moderne Galerie des Saarlands-Museum.Google Scholar
László, A., 1993. Le sud-est de la Transylvanie dans le néolithique tardif et le chalko-lithique. Nouvelles données et considerations. In Georgieva, P. (ed.), The Fourth Millennium B.C: 62–76. Sofia: New Bulgarian University Press.Google Scholar
Mandelbrot, B., 1992. Fractals – a geometry of nature. In Hall, N. (ed.), The New Scientist Guide to Chaos: 122–135. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Massey, D., 1991. Flexible sexism. Environment and Planning D. Society and Space 9: 31–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mateesco, C. N., 1975. Remarks on cattle breeding and agriculture in the Middle and Late Neolithic on the lower Danube. Dacia n.s. 19:13–18.Google Scholar
Merchant, C., 1980. The Death of Nature. Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Miller, Daniel, 1985. Artefacts as Categories. A Study of Ceramic Variability in Central India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Daniel, 1987. Material Cuture and Mass Consumption. Oxford, Blackwell.Google Scholar
Moore, Henrietta, 1993. The differences within and the differences between. In del Valle, T. (ed.), Gendered Anthropology: 193–204. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ortner, S., 1974. Is female to male as nature is to culture? In Rosaldo, M. and Lamphere, L. (eds), Woman, Culture and Society: 67–88. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Piggott, Stuart, 1983. The Earliest Wheeled Transport: from the Atlantic Coast to the Caspian Sea. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Poewe, K. O., 1980. Universal male dominance: an ethnological illusion. Dialectical Anthropology 5: 111–125.Google Scholar
Prown, J. D., 1993. The truth of material culture: history or fiction? In Lubar, S. and Kingery, W. D. (eds), History from Things. Essays on material culture: 1–19. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Quitta, H. and Kohl, G., 1975. Mogilata Goljamo Delcevo – radiovuglerodni dati i absolutna hronologiya. In Todorova, H., Ivanov, St., Vasilev, V., Hopf, M., Quitta, H. and Kohl, G. (eds), Selishnata mogilapri Goljamo Delcevo: 325–331. Sofia: BAN.Google Scholar
Raduntcheva, A., 1976. Vinica – eneolitno selishte i nekropol. Sofia: BAN.Google Scholar
Raduntcheva, A., 1989. La société dans les Balkans à l'ǎge du cuivre. Dossiers Histoire et Archéologie 137: 46–55.Google Scholar
Rawson, J., 1993. The ancestry of Chinese bronze vessels. In Lubar, S. and Kingery, W. D. (eds), History from Things. Essays on material culture: 51–73. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Renrew, A. Colin, 1986. Varna and the emergence of wealth. In Appadurai, A. (ed.), The Social Life of Things: 141–168. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Renrew, A. Colin, Gimbutas, Marija, and Elster, E. (eds), 1986. Excavations at Sitagroi. A prehistoric village in Northeast Greece. Volume 1, Monumenta Archaeologica 13. Los Angeles, University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rowlands, Michael, 1993. The role of memory in the transmission of culture. World Archaeology 25 (2): 141–151.Google Scholar
Ruelle, D., 1991. Chance and Chaos. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sanday, P., 1974. Female status in the public domain. In Rosaldo, M. and Lamphere, L. (eds), Woman, Culture and Society: 189–206. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Saxe, A. A., 1970. Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practice. Ph.D., University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Schiffer, Michael B., 1987. Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Sherratt, Andrew, 1979 Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution. In Hodder, I., Hammond, N. and Iasaac, G. (eds), Patterns of the Past: 261–305. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sherratt, Andrew, 1983. The Eneolithic period in Bulgaria in its European context. In Poulter, A. (ed.), Ancient Bulgaria, part 1: 188–198. Nottingham: University of Nottingham Press.Google Scholar
Slaughter, C., 1984. Social evolution: some sociological aspects. In Bintliff, J. (ed.), European Social Evolution: 41–68. Bradford: University of Bradford Press.Google Scholar
Strathern, Marilyn, 1987. Producing difference: connections and disconnections in two New Guinea Highland kinship systems. In Collier, J. F. and Yanagisako, S. J. (eds), Gender and Kinship. Essays towards a unified analysis: 271–300. Stanford: University of Stanford Press.Google Scholar
Strathern, Marilyn, 1988. The Gender of the Gift. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Strathern, Marilyn, 1991. Partial Connections. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield (ASAO Special Publication 3).Google Scholar
Thomas, N., 1992. The cultural dynamics of peripheral exchange. In Humphrey, C. and Hugh-Jones, S. (eds), Barter, Exchange and Value. An Anthropological Approach: 21–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todorova, Henrieta, 1971. Kasnoeneolitnia nekropol krai grad Devnja-Vamensko. Izvestia NM Varna 7 (knj. 22): 3–40.Google Scholar
Todorova, Henrieta, 1975. Arheologichesko prouchvane na selishnata mogila i nekropola pri Goljamo Delcevo, Vamensko. In Todorova, H., Ivanov, St., Vasilev, V., Hopf, M., Quitta, H. and Kohl, G. (eds), Selishnata mogila pri Goljamo Delcevo: 5–243. Sofia: BAN.Google Scholar
Todorova, Henrieta, 1983. Ausgrabungen in Durankulak, Bezirk Tolbuhin (Bulgarien), in der Period 1975–1981. Nachrichten aus Niedersachsens Urgeschichte 52: 77–89.Google Scholar
Todorova, Henrieta, Ivanov, St., Vasilev, V., Hopf, M., Quitta, H., and Kohl, G. G. (eds), 1975. Selishnata mogila pri Goljamo Delcevo. Sofia: BAN.Google Scholar
Todorova, Henrieta, and Vajsov, I., 1993. Novo-kamennata epoha v Bulgariya. Sofia: Nauka i Izkustvo.Google Scholar
Trincham, Ruth and Conkey, Margaret, 1995. Archaeology and the Goddess: explaining the contours of Feminist Archaeology. In Stanton, D. C. and Stewart, A. J. (eds), Feminisms in the Academy: 199–247. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Vasilev, V. K., 19885. Izledvanie na faunata ot selishna mogila Ovcarovo. Interdisciplinami Izledvaniya 13: 1–198.Google Scholar
Wagner, R., 1975. The Invention of Culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc.Google Scholar
Wagner, R., 1991. The fractal person. In Godelier, M. and Strathern, M. (eds), Big Men and Great Men. Personifications of power in Melanesia: 159–173. Cambridge and Paris: Cambridge University Press and Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme.Google Scholar
Wason, P. K., 1994. The Archaeology of Rank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weiner, A., 1985. Inalienable wealth. American Ethnologist 12: 210–227.Google Scholar
Weiner, A., 1992. Inalienable Possessions. The Paradox of Keeping-while-Giving. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, Ruth, 1992. Tools the Manmaker: the cultural construction of gender in Italian prehistory. The Accordia Research Papers 3: 41–53.Google Scholar