Jessica Pearson
Mobility and kinship in the world’s first village societies
Pearson, Jessica; Evans, Jane; Lamb, Angela; Baird, Douglas; Hodder, Ian; Marciniak, Arkadiusz; Larsen, Clark Spencer; Knüsel, Christopher J.; Haddow, Scott D.; Pilloud, Marin A.; Bogaard, Amy; Fairbairn, Andrew; Plug, Jo-Hannah; Mazzucato, Camilla; Mustafaoğlu, Gökhan; Feldman, Michal; Somel, Mehmet; Fernández-Domínguez, Eva
Authors
Jane Evans
Angela Lamb
Douglas Baird
Ian Hodder
Arkadiusz Marciniak
Clark Spencer Larsen
Christopher J. Knüsel
Scott D. Haddow
Marin A. Pilloud
Amy Bogaard
Andrew Fairbairn
Jo-Hannah Plug
Camilla Mazzucato
Gökhan Mustafaoğlu
Michal Feldman
Mehmet Somel
Dr Eva Fernandez Dominguez eva.fernandez@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor
Abstract
Around 10,000 y ago in southwest Asia, the cessation of a mobile lifestyle and the emergence of the first village communities during the Neolithic marked a fundamental change in human history. The first communities were small (tens to hundreds of individuals) but remained semisedentary. So-called megasites appeared soon after, occupied by thousands of more sedentary inhabitants. Accompanying this shift, the material culture and ancient ecological data indicate profound changes in economic and social behavior. A shift from residential to logistical mobility and increasing population size are clear and can be explained by either changes in fertility and/or aggregation of local groups. However, as sedentism increased, small early communities likely risked inbreeding without maintaining or establishing exogamous relationships typical of hunter-gatherers. Megasites, where large populations would have made endogamy sustainable, could have avoided this risk. To examine the role of kinship practices in the rise of megasites, we measured strontium and oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel from 99 individuals buried at Pınarbaşı, Boncuklu, and Çatalhöyük (Turkey) over 7,000 y. These sites are geographically proximate and, critically, span both early sedentary behaviors (Pınarbaşı and Boncuklu) and the rise of a local megasite (Çatalhöyük). Our data are consistent with the presence of only local individuals at Pınarbaşı and Boncuklu, whereas at Çatalhöyük, several nonlocals are present. The Çatalhöyük data stand in contrast to other megasites where bioarchaeological evidence has pointed to strict endogamy. These different kinship behaviors suggest that megasites may have arisen by employing unique, community-specific kinship practices.
Citation
Pearson, J., Evans, J., Lamb, A., Baird, D., Hodder, I., Marciniak, A., …Fernández-Domínguez, E. (2023). Mobility and kinship in the world’s first village societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(4), Article e2209480119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209480119
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Sep 19, 2022 |
Online Publication Date | Jan 17, 2023 |
Publication Date | 2023 |
Deposit Date | Feb 21, 2023 |
Publicly Available Date | May 2, 2023 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
Print ISSN | 0027-8424 |
Electronic ISSN | 1091-6490 |
Publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 120 |
Issue | 4 |
Article Number | e2209480119 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209480119 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1179985 |
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright Statement
This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
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