Neolithic meshworks: a multi-scalar approach to understanding social relations within the LBK

Giddens, Heather 2016. Neolithic meshworks: a multi-scalar approach to understanding social relations within the LBK. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the different scales of sociality (or social interaction) found within the LBK through the lens of a broadly meshwork-based perspective. It evaluates the hypotheses that people in the LBK lived in and recognised multiple levels of 'community', that these different communities overlapped, resulting in negotiation and possibly conflict; and that membership of these communities was potentially open and fluid, varying according to season, task or personal preference. With the help of meshwork-thinking, I explore the social relationships that helped to define the LBK. In doing so, I demonstrate that this dynamic, multi-dimensional approach can offer a new perspective on understanding the degree of homogeneity and variation within the LBK tradition. The core of the thesis is divided into three case studies, each concentrating on a specific scale of analysis. The first case study focuses on social interaction at the household scale and considers the emergence of individual households, household complexes and co-operative groups of households within the Merzbach and Schlangengraben valleys. The second case study explores the inter-play between competing family and clan/lineage identities at the scale of the settlement cluster or micro-region. The third case study zooms out to the regional scale of the Lower Rhine basin, tracing more geographically spread patterns in the material culture as well as interaction with non-LBK groups beyond the loess regions. Calling on these cases studies, I also consider how scale was experienced in the LBK.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology D History General and Old World > DB Austria D History General and Old World > DD Germany D History General and Old World > DR Balkan Peninsula
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 May 2016
Last Modified:	10 Aug 2021 13:55
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/91118

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