Households, Houses, Neighborhoods and Corporate Villages

Modeling the Early Bronze Age as a House Society

Abstract

In the ongoing investigation of southern Levantine Early Bronze Age (EBA) walled settlements, archaeologists are uncovering a diversity of expression of life in walled communities that challenges the normative boundaries of traditional models of urbanism, secondary state formation, chiefdoms and the nature and role of ritual and elite institutions. Building on Philip's (2001) discussion of EBA walled settlements as dynamic corporate villages, this paper employs the anthropological model of house societies as a framework for discussing the social, economic and political networks within corporate villages. Drawing on excavated data from residential, non-residential and mortuary contexts at several EBA sites, I explore the economic, social and political relationships between residential and non-residential realms in terms of social differentiation and civic governance within these communities. I argue that we enhance our understanding of EBA society by viewing the data through the lens of the house society model, originally developed by Lévi-Strauss (1982).