From Diffusion to Structural Transformation: the Changing Roles of the Neolithic House in the Middle East, Turkey and Europe

Abstract

The papers in this volume make a good case that the house played a key role in the Neolithic of Europe, not only in the sense that it sheltered and protected but also that it contributed substantially to the production of society. In relation to this claim, this chapter makes three points. First, while the chapters are adept at exploring the social dimensions of houses, they could pay more attention to the ways in which the material presence of the house drew humans into particular forms of relationships. Second, there is a need for critical evaluation of who lived in houses. We cannot assume nuclear families of genetically close kin, especially given recent evidence from Çatalhöyük. Third, rather than seeing forms of house emerging from the Middle East and transforming as they spread across Europe, it seems possible to argue that houses went through parallel social and material changes throughout the entire region. Similar pathways are followed in different areas, at different tempos and in different forms.