A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece
A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece
$45.00
USDThe study of households and everyday life is increasingly recognized as fundamental in social archaeological analysis. This volume addresses the household as a process and as a conceptual and analytical means through which we can interpret social organization from the bottom up. Using detailed case studies from Neolithic Greece, Stella Souvatzi examines how the household is defined socially, culturally and historically; she discusses household and community, variability, production and reproduction, individual and collective agency, identity, change, complexity and integration. Her study is enriched by an in-depth discussion of the framework for the household in the social sciences and the synthesis of many anthropological, historical and sociological examples. It reverses the view of the household as passive, ahistorical and stable, showing it instead to be active, dynamic and continually shifting.
- Fully illustrated, many previously unpublished illustrations
- Covers a wide range of key theories and arguments of archaeology and anthropology
- Presents significant analysis of recent data as well as reinterpretations of older material from the Neolithic of Greece
Reviews & endorsements
"... this is a useful book that adds much to our current understandings of the household. It will be of interest to those studying the Neolithic and to those interested in the variable nature of housing and households more generally. --BMCR
"...this book does make an important contribution both to our understanding of the Greek Neolithic and household archaeology and is part of a welcome growing trend." -Craig Cessford, Cambridge Archaeological Journal
"...Souvatzi provides conceptual guidance on understanding the behavioural patterns of the early settlers of the region and offers suggestions for future research in other regions using her alternative interpretations of household." -Gunes Duru, European Journal of Archaeology archaeology and the methods appropriate to it.
Product details
May 2014Paperback
9781107684843
332 pages
254 × 178 × 18 mm
0.58kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. The household in the social sciences
- 2. The household as process in a social archaeology
- 3. The Neolithic of Greece
- 4. The ideal and the real: the examples of Early Neolithic Nea Nikomedeia and Middle Neolithic Sesklo
- 5. Complexity is not only about hierarchy: Late Neolithic Dimini, a detailed case study in household organisation
- 6. Homogeneity or diversity? Households as variable processes
- 7. Evolution or contingency? Households as transitional processes
- 8. Household and beyond: implications and prospects for social archaeology.
