DOMESTICATION OF HUMAN BODY: THE EMBODIMENT OF NEOLITHIC HOUSEHOLD IN THE BALKANS
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 29/09/2020

Domestication in the Neolithic is commonly related to agriculture and taming of wild animals. But this process was much broader and considered people as well. The change of economic practices also regarded novel social norms and more complex understanding of manmade environment. In such significantly changed society the man was the major driving force and the human body become primary symbolic reference. Almost anything that was produced in the Neolithic, from large constructions such as dwellings to small items such as stamps, was also embodied and semantically elaborated through anthropomorphism. The anthropomorphism was incorporated in order to demonstrate that almost anything that was made and used by man was symbolically functioning as the human body. Consequently, the large number of models houses and ovens, vessels, tablets and stamps consisted human features and emphasized the Neolithic body techniques. The visual culture become a representative of habitus of the first farming societies and the house an institution of body where its symbolic potentials were also promoted. In this manner the dwellings and bodies were furthermore mutually involved through rituals, thus burying mainly dead children and women inside houses and ovens. This paper will be focused on visual and ritual anthropomorphism in the Neolithic Balkans with emphasis on anthropomorphic hybrids and intramural burials.


Author(s): Naumov, Goce (Museum of Macedonia; Center for Prehistoric Research)