Prestige - Prestigegüter - Sozialstrukturen

Beispiele aus dem europäischen und vorderasiatischem Neolithikum

Prestige and prestige goods were crucial for social processes in Neolithic societies. The sociological and cultural-anthropological term definitions in the various examples in this volume illustrate this fact: Beginning with the Levantine Aceramic, the £atal Hüyük in Anatolia and Spondylus Jewelry of the Linear Pottery culture the study leads up to the non-megalithic monuments of Denmark and the Corded Ware culture of the mid-Elbe and Saale region. In each case it is shown that, even without directly looking for “prestige goods” in the archeological material, “prestige” for certain groups of people can be reconstructed from the prehistoric sources. Neolithic societies functioned between the poles of informal prestige accumulation and regulated creation of ranks. Hierarchies are the basis for initial stratification: Social structures of the Neolithic Age become visible.