The Domestication of Europe by Ian Hodder (English) Paperback Book

Publisher Description

The Neolithic saw the spread of the first farmers, and the formation of settled villages throughout Europe. Traditional archaeology has interpreted these changes in terms of population growth, economic pressures and social competition, but in "The Domestication of Europe" Ian Hodder works from a new, controversial theory focusing instead on the enormous expansion of symbolic evidence from the homes, settlements and burials of the period. Why do the figurines, decorated pottery, elaborate houses and burial rituals appear and what is their significance? The author argues that the symbolism of the Neolithic must be interpreted if we are to understand adequately the associated social and economic changes. He suggests that both in Europe and the Near East a particular set of concepts was central to the origins of farming and a settled mode of life. These concepts relate to the house and home - termed "domus" - and they provided a metaphor and a mechanism for social and economic transformation. As the wild was brought in and domesticated through ideas and practices surrounding the domus, people were brought in and settled into the social and economic group of the village. Over the following millennia cultural practices relating to the domus continued to change and develop, until finally overtaken by a new set of concepts which became socially central, based on the warrior, the hunter and the wild.

Author Biography

Ian Hodder FBA is a British archaeologist and pioneer of postprocessualist theory in archaeology that first took root among his students and in his own work between 1980-1990.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Domestication of Society 3. The Domus in the Neolithic of SE Europe 4. Domus and Agrios in SE Europe 5. Dominating Boundaries and Entrances: The Earlier Neolithic in Central Europe 6. Towards a Higher Domain: The Later Neolithic in Central Europe 7. Domes of Rock: The Neolithic in Southern Scandinavia 8. Dames and Axes: Parallel Lines of Development in Northern France 9. Taming the Landscape: Changing Idioms of Power in the Neolithic of Lowland Britain 10. Beginning by Ending References

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