Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- 3.1 The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
- 3.2 Western and Central Asia: DNA
- 3.3 The Upper Palaeolithic and Earlier Epi-Palaeolithic of Western Asia
- 3.4 The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
- 3.5 The Levant in the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
- 3.6 Settlement and Emergent Complexity in Western Syria, c. 7000–2500 bce
- 3.7 Prehistory and the Rise of Cities in Mesopotamia and Iran
- 3.8 Mesopotamia
- 3.9 Anatolia: From the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the End of the Early Bronze Age (10,500–2000 bce)
- 3.10 Anatolia from 2000 to 550 bce
- 3.11 The Prehistory of the Caucasus: Internal Developments and External Interactions
- 3.12 Arabia
- 3.13 Central Asia before the Silk Road
- 3.14 Southern Siberia during the Bronze and Early Iron Periods
- 3.15 Western Asia after Alexander
- 3.16 Western and Central Asia: Languages
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- Index
- References
3.4 - The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
from VII. - Western and Central Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- 3.1 The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
- 3.2 Western and Central Asia: DNA
- 3.3 The Upper Palaeolithic and Earlier Epi-Palaeolithic of Western Asia
- 3.4 The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
- 3.5 The Levant in the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
- 3.6 Settlement and Emergent Complexity in Western Syria, c. 7000–2500 bce
- 3.7 Prehistory and the Rise of Cities in Mesopotamia and Iran
- 3.8 Mesopotamia
- 3.9 Anatolia: From the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the End of the Early Bronze Age (10,500–2000 bce)
- 3.10 Anatolia from 2000 to 550 bce
- 3.11 The Prehistory of the Caucasus: Internal Developments and External Interactions
- 3.12 Arabia
- 3.13 Central Asia before the Silk Road
- 3.14 Southern Siberia during the Bronze and Early Iron Periods
- 3.15 Western Asia after Alexander
- 3.16 Western and Central Asia: Languages
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Sedentism or reduced mobility of a human group is a socioeconomic aspect related to a choice of designated locality that becomes a settlement, whether occupied all year round or only over a few months. The “when”, “where” and “why” this type of habitation was chosen by a society – often described as “small-scale”, “intermediate” or “middle range” – can be identified in the record, but we need to briefly review the issues already discussed in the literature concerning this kind of social organisation, which is often regarded as non-egalitarian (Arnold 1996; Johnson & Earle 2000; Price & Fienman 1995 and papers therein).
In describing the complex social structure of non-egalitarian societies, whether related to power and labour, household sizes, evidence for inequality and physical conflicts (Ames 1995; Roscoe 2008, 2009), authors rely on ethno-historical information and much less on the archaeological records (Kelly 1992). However, in most, if not all, of these cases, the transition from the so-called simple or egalitarian hunting and gathering groups of the Late Palaeolithic and Early Holocene to societies of foragers and farmers is hardly explained and often debated. Unfortunately historical records, including most oral traditions, do not provide ample information for the primordial time of these ethno-linguistic groups who became farmers. One of the exceptional cases is the biblical story about the expulsion of humans from the “Garden of Eden”. Ignoring the ethical issue of why it happened and who was responsible for the move out, the biblical writer stated that the difference is between being affluent foragers and hard-working farmers and herders.
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- The Cambridge World Prehistory , pp. 1408 - 1438Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
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