The Neolithic dualist scheme
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.49.2Keywords:
Neolithic symbolism, exogamy, kinship structure, hunter-gatherer ideology, incipient farmersAbstract
The monumental twin steles of Göbekli Tepe are one in a long series of isomorphic compositions in Neolithic symbolism. Seemingly tracing back to the Palaeolithic, symmetry likely played a fundamental role for prehistoric societies. Ethnographers showed how hunter-gatherer ideology (mythology, totemism, etc.) is often structured around a dualistic worldview (male/female; summer/winter etc.) taking root in the kinship system through a division of the community into exogamic subgroups. It is this dualism that is argued to be embodied in the twin steles. The advent of autonomous agricultural lineages could explain why this timeless principle appears with such prominence in the Neolithic.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Cédric Bodet

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published (print and online) in journal Documenta Praehistorica by Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). Author’s name will be evident in the article in journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
- Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.