Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-pwrkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-19T17:33:15.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Origins of the Village Revisited: From Nuclear to Extended Households

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kent V. Flannery
Kent V. Flannery*
Affiliation:
Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Mesoamerica and the Near East, the emergence of the village seems to have involved two stages. In the first stage, individuals were distributed through a series of small circular-to-oval structures, accompanied by communal or “shared” storage features. In the second stage, nuclear families occupied substantial rectangular houses with private storage rooms. Over the last 30 years a wealth of data from the Near East, Egypt, the Trans-Caucasus, India, Africa, and the Southwest U.S. have enriched our understanding of this phenomenon. And in Mesoamerica and the Near East, evidence suggests that nuclear family households eventually gave way to a third stage, one featuring extended family households whose greater labor force made possible extensive multifaceted economies.

Résumé

Résumé

En Mesoamérica y el Cercano Oriente, la evolución de las primeras aldeas parece haber pasado por dos etapas. En la primera etapa, los miembros del grupo ocupaban una serie de pequeños abrigos circulares u ovalados, y mantenían depósitos comunales para el uso de todos. En la segunda etapa, familias nucleares vivían en casas rectangulares con cuartos de depósito privados. Durante los últimos 30 años, datos del Cercano Oriente, Egipto, India, Africa, el Suroeste de los E.E.U.U. y la región Trans-Caucásica han amplificado el conocimiento de tales cambios residenciales. Además, en Mesoamérica y el Cercano Oriente, se ha notado una tercera etapa: casas para familias nucleares fueron reemplazadas por residencias más grandes, en las cuales una familia extendida de 15–20 personas proporcionó mano de obra para una economía compleja.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 3 , July 2002 , pp. 417 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2002

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

References Cited

Bar-Yosef, O., and Valla, F. R. (editors) 1991 The Natufian Culture in the Levant. International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series No. 1. Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1983 Working at Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Braidwood, R. J., Braidwood, L., Smith, J. G., and Leslie, C. 1952 Matarrah: A Southern Variant of the Hassunan Assemblage, Excavated in 1948. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 11:1–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunton, G., and Caton-Thompson, G.| 1928 The Badarian Civilisation and Prehistoric Remains near Badari. Quaritch, London.Google Scholar
Byrd, B. F. 1994 Public and Private, Domestic and Corporate: The Emergence of the Southwest Asian Village. American Antiquity 59:639–666.Google Scholar
Cook, S. R, and Heizer, R. F. 1968 Relationships among Houses, Settlement Areas, and Population in Aboriginal California. In Settlement Archaeology, edited by Chang, K. C., pp. 79–116. National Press Books, Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Dhavalikar, M. K. 1988 The First Farmers of the Deccan. Ravish Publishers, Pune, India.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. 1972 The Origins of the Village as a Settlement Type in Mesoamerica and the Near East: A Comparative Study. In Man, Settlement and Urbanism, edited by Ucko, P. J., Tringham, R., and Dimbleby, G. W., pp. 23–53. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V, and Marcus, J. 1983 Urban Mitla and Its Rural Hinterland. In The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations, edited by Flannery, K. V. and Marcus, J., pp. 295–300. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Garrod, D. A. E., and Bate, D. M. 1937 The Stone Age of Mount Carmel, Vol. 1. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Gremliza, F. G. L. 1962 Ecology and Endemic Diseases in the Dei Irrigation Pilot Area: A Report to the Khuzestan Water and Power Authority and Plan Organization of Iran. Development Resource Corporation, New York.Google Scholar
Gross, G. T. 1992 Subsistence Change and Architecture: Anasazi Storerooms in the Dolores Region, Colorado. In Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement No. 6, pp. 241–265. JAI Press, Stamford, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. C. 2000 Warless Societies and the Origin of War. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Kohler, T. A. 1993 News from the Northern American Southwest: Prehistory on the Edge of Chaos. Journal of Archaeological Research 1:267–321.Google Scholar
Kramer, C. 1979 An Archaeological View of a Contemporary Kurdish Village: Domestic Architecture, Household Size, and Wealth. In Ethnoarchaeology: Implications of Ethnography for Archaeology, edited by Kramer, C., pp. 139–163. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Kuijt, I. (editor) 2000 Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and Differentiation. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, S. 1971 An Addition to Naroll's Suggested Floor Area and Settlement Population Relationship. American Antiquity 36:210–212.Google Scholar
Lloyd, S., and Safar, F. 1945 Tell Hassuna. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 4:255–289.Google Scholar
Marcus, J., and Flannery, K. V. 1996 Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico's Oaxaca Valley. Thames and Hudson, London and New York.Google Scholar
Merpert, N. Y, and Munchaev, R. M. 1993 Yarim Tepe I. In The Early Stages of the Evolution of Mesopotamian Civilization, edited by Yoffee, N. and Clark, J. J., pp. 73–114. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Murdock, G. P., and Wilson, S. 1972 Settlement Patterns and Community Organization: Cross-cultural Codes. Ethnology 11:254–295.Google Scholar
Naroll, R. 1962 Floor Area and Settlement Population. American Antiquity 27:587–589.Google Scholar
Oates, J. 1969 Choga Mami 1967–68: A Preliminary Report. Iraq 31:115–152.Google Scholar
O’Connell, J. F 1987 Alyawara Site Structure and its Archaeological Implications. American Antiquity 52:74–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plog, S. 1990 Agriculture, Sedentism, and Environment in the Evolution of Political Systems. In The Evolution of Political Systems: Sociopolitics in Small-Scale Sedentary Societies, edited by Upham, S., pp. 177–202. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Plunket, P., and Uruñuela, G.| 1998 Preclassic Household Patterns Preserved under Volcanic Ash at Tetimpa, Puebla, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 9:287–309.Google Scholar
Robbins, M. C. 1966 House Types and Settlement Patterns: An Application of Ethnology to Archaeological Interpretation. Minnesota Archaeologist 28:3–26.Google Scholar
Rollefson, G. 1997 Changes in Architecture and Social Organization at Neolithic ‘Ain Ghazal. In Prehistory of Jordan II, edited by Gebel, H., Kafafi, Z., and Rollefson, G., pp. 287–307. Ex Oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Sagona, A. G. 1993 Settlement and Society in Late Prehistoric Trans-Caucasus. In Between the Rivers and Over the Mountains, edited by Frangipane, M., Hauptmann, H., Liverani, M., Matthiae, P., and Mellink, M., pp. 453–474. Università di Roma “La Sapienza,” Rome.Google Scholar
Sahlins, M. D. 1962 Moala: Culture and Nature on a Fijian Island. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Schmieder, O. 1930 The Settlements of the Tzapotec and Mije Indians, State of Oaxaca, Mexico. University of California Publications in Geography IV. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Soffer, O. 1985 The Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, C. S. 1982 The Cuicatlán Cañada and Monte Albán: A Study of Primary State Formation. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S., and Redmond, E. M. 1997 Archaeology of the Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, No. 80. New York.Google Scholar
Stekelis, M., and Yizraely, T. 1963 Excavations at Nahal Oren: Preliminary Report. Israel Exploration Journal 13:1–12.Google Scholar
Ucko, P. J., Tringham, R., and Dimbleby, G. W. (editors) 1972 Man, Settlement and Urbanism. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Watson, P. J. 1979 Archaeological Ethnography in Western Iran. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology No. 57. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Whiting,, J. W M., and Ayres, B. 1968 Inferences from the Shape of Dwellings. In Settlement Archaeology, edited by Chang, K. C., pp. 117–133. National Press Books, Palo Alto.Google Scholar
Wiessner, P. 1982 Beyond Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: A Comment on Binford's Analysis of Hunter-gatherer Settlement Systems. American Antiquity 47:171–178.Google Scholar
Wills, W. H. 1992 Plant Cultivation and the Evolution of Risk-prone Economies in the Prehistoric American Southwest. In Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory, edited by Gebauer, A. B. and Price, T. D., pp. 153–176. Monographs in World Archaeology No. 4. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Winterhalder, B. 1990 Open Field, Common Pot: Harvest Variability and Risk Avoidance in Agricultural and Foraging Societies. In Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies, edited by Cashdan, E., pp. 67–88. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Woodburn, J. C. 1972 Ecology, Nomadic Movement and the Composition of the Local Group among Hunters and Gatherers: An East African Example and Its Implications. In Man, Settlement and Urbanism, edited by Ucko, P. J., Tringham, R., and Dimbleby, G. W., pp. 193–206. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Yellen, J. E. 1977 Archaeological Approaches to the Present: Models for Reconstructing the Past. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar