Neolithic Priorities

Ritual and Visual Preferences within Burials and Corporeality in the Balkans

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7175253
AutoresGoce Naumov (autor correspondente)
Ano2014
Volume17
Fascículo2
Páginas184-207
Data de publicação2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEuropean Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1461-9571 • E-ISSN: 1741-2722
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1179/1461957114y.0000000058
OpenAlexW1979838908
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas36

Neolithic bodies are not only manifestations of subjective principles. Social and symbolic norms are also incorporated within the bodies of both actual and represented individuals. These norms often relate to economic and religious notions of society, as well as to effigies. Owing to high population densities in Neolithic villages, only a select group of the inhabitants were buried within settlements or represented in images. This generated a category of privileged individuals and body features, which were related to symbolic principles rather than social hierarchy. Such practices among Neolithic societies in the Balkans are evident within burials and human representations. Individuals buried inside settlements, anthropomorphic house models, and figurines from several sites in Ovče Pole, Pelagonia, and the Skopje Valley are used as case studies in this paper. Placing these sites into a wider geographical context, it is argued that gender, age and body parts were significant criteria in funerary practices and features of corporeality

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Ethnology · Geography · Hierarchy · Human settlement · Political science · Population · Social hierarchy · Sociology · The Symbolic · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Anthropology · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · History · Law · Psychology