Comment on the community life of the Neolithic people touching upon the emergence of
institutions such as family and society.
Answers
Answer:
The way Neolithic society was composed and functioned is difficult to reconstruct with certainty. Nevertheless, architecture, burial customs, economic activities, figurines and other classes of mobiliary finds from Aegean sites of the Neolithic have contributed to the existing knowledge we have of this society.
The first Neolithic communities lived in densely built settlements and numbered 50-300 individuals. During the Pre-Pottery, Early and Middle Neolithic, the basic unit of society was the clan or extended family that consisted of parents, children, grandparents and other close kinship. Its members lived in one or more neighbouring houses, that formed households sharing hearths and ovens situated in open spaces for common use, in between the houses. These households practised a mixed farming and stock-rearing economy. Production was shared and did not allow for economic differentiation and subsequently social stratification. The social roles in each community were defined on the basis of gender, age, kinship and participation in communal productive processes. Through the farming and stock-rearing economy the roles of both sexes were defined. Judging from the numerous female figurines, the role of the woman in Neolithic society seems to have been stressed, at least at a symbolical level. Existing data has not provided though clear evidence as to whether Neolithic society was matriarchal or patriarchal.
From the beginning of the Late Neolithic an increase in population has been observed, with subsequent changes in the number and the inner organization of settlements, as well as in economy. In architecture, large, rectangular, megaroid and apsidal buildings were used, capable of housing populous families. Hearths and ovens ceased to be commonly used and were constructed in the interior of houses. In economy there was specialization in production e.g. in pottery and jewellery of Spondylus sea-shell (Dimini), while at the same time cultural and commercial exchanges developed. This brought about changes in community composition, the main unit of which was by now the nuclear family. The first attempts at specialization in production, developing trade and exchanges had a clear impact on communal work and social relationsips which characterized previous periods. New conditions and values developing in Neolithic society were reflected in distinctive objects, owned only by a few members of the community during the Late Neolithic II and Final Neolithic. These objects were symbols of social prestige and consisted of: leaf-shaped arrow heads of Melian obsidian, jewellery of gold or silver (ring idol pendants, strips of gold), jewellery of Spondylus sea-shell and copper tools.
Finally, the attitude towards the dead members of the community, reflected in the burial customs of each period, is indicative of the character of Neolithic society.
Explanation: