| View Larger Image | The Domestication of Europe (Social Archaeology) | Paperbackby Ian Hodder (Author)
| List Price: | $39.95 | | Price: | $34.03 | | You Save: | $5.92 (15%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell | | Page Count: | 331 Pages | | Publication Date: | January 15, 1991 | | Sales Rank: | 1,633,673st |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
The Neolithic saw the spread of the first farmers, and the formation of settled villages throughout Europe. Traditional archaeology has interpreted these changes in terms of population growth, economic pressures and social competition, but in The Domestication of Europe Ian Hodder works from a new, controversial theory focusing instead on the enormous expansion of symbolic evidence from the homes, settlements and burials of the period. Why do the figurines, decorated pottery, elaborate houses and burial rituals appear and what is their significance? The author argues that the symbolism of the Neolithic must be interpreted if we are to understand adequately the associated social and economic changes. He suggests that both in Europe and the Near East a particular set of concepts was central to the origins of farming and a settled mode of life. These concepts relate to the house and home - termed `domus' - and they provided a metaphor and a mechanism for social and economic transformation. As the wild was brought in and domesticated through ideas and practices surrounding the domus, people were brought in and settled into the social and economic group of the village. Over the following millennia cultural practices relating to the domus continued to change and develop, until finally overtaken by a new set of concepts which became socially central, based on the warrior, the hunter and the wild. This book is an exercise in interpretive prehistory. Ian Hodder shows how a contextual reading of the evidence can allow symbolic structures to be cautiously but plausibly identified, and sets out his arguments for complex dialectical relationships between long-term symbolic structures and economic causes of cultural change. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 1 review)
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A "Domus" ideology or a matrifocal society? by Erik Rodenborg (Solna, Sweden)  3 Stars
June 27, 2002
Ian Hodder has written a quite interesting book arguing that the early phases of neolithic Europe was dominated by an ideology which he calls "domus" and was characterized by a focus on women, nurturing and the houses. This was later replaced by an ideology he calla "agrios" which was characterized by a focus on men, aggression, weapons and the wild. He had some minor references to Gimbutas in his book but he never admits that the whole structure is taken from Gimbutas theory on the matrifocal Old Europe and the patriarchal Indo-European warrior societies that replaced it. Every single society which Hodder place in the domus category is societies which Gimbutas thought belonging to Old Europe and every society which Hodder defines as an "agrios" culture is Indo-European and patriarchal according to Gimbutas. And, of cource, Gimbutas theory is from 1974 and Hodder's from 1990.I think the greatness of Gimbutas theory is clearly shown by the fact that even an archaeologist like Hodder are using her model, although he don't seems to admit it, when he creates a theory of his own. Of course, he states that "I certainly cannot say whether these societies were matrilineal, matrilocal or matriarchal" but at least "certain aspects of being a woman was conceptually central" (p. 68). Hodder's fascinating book is, whether he likes it or not, encouraging for those who thinks that there is evidence for a Goddess Cult and a matrifocal society in the neolithic. He had realized that the symbolism indeed was centered on women. He didn't draw the logical conclusions, but there are other people who can do this...
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