Review

Reviewed Work(s): The Domestication of Europe: Structure and Contingency in Neolithic

Societies by Ian Hodder
Review by: Peter Bogucki
Source: American Antiquity, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Oct., 1992), pp. 734-736
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/280838
Accessed: 06-01-2018 19:31 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to American Antiquity

This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Sat, 06 Jan 2018 19:31:40 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 734 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 57, No. 4, 19921

The several (but rather minor) differences between Wil- Native American experiences following early sustained
cox and Spielmann/Speth, which I leave to the reader contact with Europeans.
to enumerate, seem connected more to Wilcox's ten- Two precontact endemic diseases, treponematosis
dency to view the Pueblos as hierarchically organized and tuberculosis, are identified by M. L. Powell in the
than to differences fundamentally entailed by his adop- skeletons recovered from Irene Mound, a late prehis-
tion of a world-systems perspective. In any case, I found toric Georgia coastal site. She explores the possibility
the two approaches to be either mutualistically bene- that these chronic diseases reduced the resistance of
ficial, or structurally dependent, according to one's point people who were exposed to newly introduced Euro-
of view. Certainly the reader profits from having this pean diseases such as measles and smallpox.
system explicated from more than one perspective. K. F. Russell and coworkers compare demographic
The last chapter, by Frances Levine, is a historical- profiles, generated from age-at-death data derived from
period postscript to a volume that concentrates largely various skeletal samples for three time periods: the
on late prehistory and protohistory. Because of the precontact preagricultural period, precontact agricul-
relative wealth of historical documentation available, tural period, and seventeenth century. The population
she is able to specify three contexts in which trade estimate of about 130 people for Santa Catalina is con-
between Pueblos or Hispanics and Comanche took sistent with ethnohistoric figures.
place-the official or diplomatic circuit; the trade fair; Two separate chapters, by D. L. Hutchinson with C.
and the informal comanchero trade used by Comanche S. Larsen and by S. W. Simpson and coworkers, focus
leaders to enhance their power and prestige. It remains on developmental dental defects known as enamel hy-
important to assess the antiquity of these three forms poplasia. The number of enamel defects and hypopla-
(Lintz suggests that some prehistoric analogue to the sia widths indicate the frequency and duration of stress
historic Calumet ceremony may have provided the events. Relationships between hypoplastic events, tooth
original context for exchange) and to further investigate size, and age-at-death for the Santa Catalina sample
the effects of this trade on the pre- and protohistoric suggest that physiological stress and mortality were
social and political structures within the interacting closely related.
societies. This volume represents a fine summary of M. J. Schoeninger and coworkers address the inter-
the present state of knowledge and a good starting point
pretation of stable-carbon and nitrogen ratios when
for those who would advance it. marine resources and maize are significant dietary
components. During the contact period, substantial
amounts of both maize and marine foods were con-
sumed, suggesting a more monotonous diet when com-
The Archaeology of Mission Santa Catalina de Guale:
2. Biocultural Interpretations of a Population in
pared to earlier time periods.
Two chapters, by C. B. Ruff with C. S. Larsen and
Transition. CLARK SPENCER LARSEN, editor.
by A. E. Fresia and coworkers, examine the structural
Anthropological Papers No. 68. American Museum
strength of upper and lower limb bones. Differences in
of Natural History, New York, 1990. 150 pp., fig-
habitual activities are evidenced by alterations in bone
ures, tables, references. $13.00 (paper).
dimensions. Disparate patterns between the sexes and
alterations in bone dimensions through time make sense
Reviewed by Sissel Schroeder, Pennsylvania State Uni-
in terms of ethnohistoric information documenting
versity.
heterogeneity in physical activities and changes in
workload.
The second monograph in the series on Santa Cat- The study of prehistoric human skeletons is rapidly
alina de Guale, edited by Clark S. Larsen, provides becoming more sophisticated. Many findings, especial-
much new information on the biological consequences ly those pertaining to diet and bone mechanics, would
of changes in native lifeways that accompanied sev- have been impossible with the analytical techniques
enteenth-century missionization efforts in the south- available 10 or more years ago. For archaeologists in-
eastern United States. Eight multiauthored chapters terested in human adaptation during the Contact pe-
summarize skeletal indicators for physiological stress riod, this volume is an important reference that dem-
and work patterns associated with the prehistoric shift onstrates the central role of human skeletal research in
from a foraging to horticultural subsistence strategy our efforts to learn about past peoples.
and, subsequently, with new demands of the historic
era.
In the initial chapter, Larsen reviews ethnohistorical The Domestication of Europe: Structure and Contin-
and archaeological data on the Georgia coast, partic- gency in Neolithic Societies. IAN HODDER. Basil
ularly St. Catherine's Island, providing a cultural con- Blackwell, Cambridge, 1990. x + 331 pp., figures,
text for the research. The remaining chapters transcend references, index. $54.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).
frequently explored issues of epidemic disease and pop-
ulation reduction by focusing attention on two related Reviewed by Peter Bogucki, Princeton University.
topics. First, skeletons are used to assess the general
quality of life manifested by dietary patterns, morbid- I was asked to write this review shortly after return-
ity, and mortality. Second, bone mechanical properties ing from the 1991 Society for American Archaeology
are employed to reconstruct routine physical activities. meetings in New Orleans, where the prevailing senti-
All chapters blend archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ment seemed to be that all good processual archaeol-
biological data to produce a more complete picture of ogists should be innoculated against the virus of "post-

This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Sat, 06 Jan 2018 19:31:40 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTES 735

processual" approaches. So, it was with some penski Vir site report and asked for a stage that evoked
trepidation that I agreed to review one of the first sub- the same dramatic feeling. In TDOE, Hodder uses Le-
stantive works to issue from the so-called postproces- penski Vir as the first act in a similar confrontation
sual school. The Domestication of Europe by Ian Hod- between the wild and the domesticated.
der (hereafter, TDOE) is perhaps the first book to appear Hodder first introduces the concept of the "domus"
from this direction that deals with a central archaeo- as a central feature of Neolithic life. No, the domus is
logical issue-the dispersal and reproduction of food- not a "household cluster," or even a "household," which
producing communities from the Balkans to southern is about as far as most empirically oriented archaeol-
England in the sixth through third millennia B.C. Most ogists would allow themselves to go. Rather, the domus
of the previously published postprocessual corpus has is a broader metaphor, which not only encompasses
consisted of short, usually article-length, case studies, the physical aspects of the home but also the nurturing
which deal with isolated times and places and which and sheltering aspects of sedentary life. The domus in
are difficult to relate to other research issues. southeastern Europe is contrasted with the "agrios,"
Actually, the term postprocessual is inaccurate, be- the wild and untamed outside world. Hodder highlights
cause Hodder does deal with "process," although not this contrast linguistically, for the Greek adjective agrios
in the meaning appropriated by archaeologists since is counterposed with the Latin domus. Agrios meta-
the 1960s. Perhaps a better term might be "postpos- phorically embodies the uncontrolled-hunting, death,
tivist" or "post-logical-empiricist," but these sound maleness. Hodder emphasizes that the study of the
more like terms used to describe movements in art or Neolithic in southeastern Europe is centered on settle-
literary criticism. Such a comparison is apposite, for ment archaeology and notes that the elaboration of
Hodder's basic premise is that the archaeological rec- burial rites does not emerge until later. He argues that
ord can be "read" like a text, applying approaches used the focal nature of settlements in Balkan archaeology
in structuralist literary criticism. In one sense, this could was an expression of the domus as the central orga-
be seen as another example of archaeology borrowing nizing symbol of early farming life, with the agrios
a method and body of theory from another discipline. remaining outside in the wild.
No one seems terribly upset when this is done from Central Europe provides the main stage for the play-
the direction of neighboring natural and social sciences. ing out of Hodder's drama, in which the relation be-
Perhaps the fact that Hodder's approach is borrowed tween domus and agrios changes. The key transfor-
from a body of scholarship that lacks the empirical mation is the shift from linear houses to linear tombs
concreteness of the physical sciences, the volume of as the wild agrios symbolized by mortuary behavior is
quantifiable data of the life and biological sciences, and brought into the sphere of the domus. As Hodder puts
the bridging arguments of the social sciences disturbs it, "the tombs referred to houses or at least to the
those who see archaeology as lying firmly in the sci- principles that produced them" (p. 155). The inferred
ences rather than in the humanities. connection between Early Neolithic longhouses and
Hodder's approach to archaeological interpretation Middle Neolithic long barrows is not entirely novel,
is actually not far removed from the "ethnography-as- having been first articulated by Childe in 1949 (Antiq-
text" approach practiced by some of our colleagues in uity 32:129-135). Hodder, however, moves the dis-
social anthropology. Such applications of "hermeneu- cussion from the identification of formal similarities
tic" and "critical theory" principles to ethnographies to the placing of this homology within a larger struc-
have more in common with work done in literature ture. Unfortunately, widespread links in space and time
departments than in the social sciences that are allied between the long houses and long tombs are still ten-
with the traditional "core" interests of anthropology. uous. In some places they are a few kilometers and 100
A fundamental premise of this approach to literary radiocarbon years apart, as in certain localities in
criticism is that the meaning of a text is ultimately northern Poland. Elsewhere there are larger separations
determined by the reader, especially the insightful one that would need to be accounted for by the persistence
who can identify underlying structures not even known of unrealized symbolic concepts. Nonetheless, I con-
to the writer. This allows for a wide variety of inter- tinue to find this relationship compelling.
pretations, some more plausible than others. In TDOE, As the agrios is "domesticated" in central and ulti-
Hodder deconstructs the archaeological text of Neo- mately western Europe (the central metaphor behind
lithic Europe in order to discover one set of underlying the title of TDOE), a new opposition emerges, this time
structures. between the domus and a concept that Hodder terms
Much of the inspiration for TDOE comes from three the "foris." As the agrios symbolized the wild, the foris
sources: C,atal Hiiyiik, Lepenski Vir, and Hodder's eth- signifies the external, the extramural. Hodder high-
noarchaeological work among the Nuba in Kenya. At lights the emphasis in Neolithic domestic and mor-
(Catal Hiuyuik, Hodder is especially impressed with the tuary architecture on boundaries and entrances and
integration of symbolic, mortuary, and domestic ele- argues that these defined the nature of human inter-
ments in the structures, while of Lepenski Vir he writes action within communities and among the atomized
of the emotive experience evoked by the archaeological Neolithic settlements of central and western Europe.
remains and their presentation: "It is as if the houses This brief summary does not do justice to the full
provide a setting for some drama-an ideal scene for range of ideas in TDOE. The "domestication" process
the performance of some plot" (p. 29). As a footnote described by Hodder is not linear, but rather a complex
to this observation, I once built a set for a production interplay among the various symbolic structures. The
of The Tempest being staged by a fellow graduate stu- inferences about the dynamics of this interplay rep-
dent of archaeology. He showed me a copy of the Le- resent yet another interpretive level above the two main

This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Sat, 06 Jan 2018 19:31:40 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 736 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 57, No. 4, 1992]

premises, that the archaeological record can be read Early Antiquity. I. M. DIAKONOFF and PHILIP L.
like a text and that the basic symbolic structures of KOHL, editors. University of Chicago Press, Chi-
domus, agrios, and foris are valid concepts. As the early cago, 1991. xxiii + 461 pp., maps, index. $49.95
farming cultures evolve, particularly in northwestern (cloth).
Europe where settlement data are sparse, the symbolic
changes through time are traced through a kaleidoscope Reviewed by Robert J. Wenke, University of Wash-
of shifting oppositions and associations. The problem, ington.
of course, may be the resolution of the text. The me-
galithic tombs have very large type, but they may only Although statues of Lenin and Marx are literally be-
represent every other paragraph. ing consigned to the dustbin of history in Eastern Eu-
Within this overall approach to scholarship, lan- rope, along with the sociopolitical systems purportedly
guage plays a central role. For instance, history be- based on their philosophies, it does not necessarily
comes a "discourse" among centers of power and au- follow that Marxist methods of historical analyses must
thority that eventually imposes social control and order. accompany them. Yet recent political events will stim-
The language in TDOE is remarkably clear and read- ulate many scholars to consider just what, precisely,
able for a book of this genre, but some may wonder Marxist thought has contributed to our understanding
whether Hodder's use of Latin and Greek terms like of one of the central problem of historians and ar-
domus, agrios, and foris is the best way to encapsulate chaeologists alike, specifically, the processes by which
these concepts or if they are another example of the sociopolitically complex societies initially appeared and
sort of scholarly language criticized by George Orwell subsequently evolved.
(1946) in his essay Politics and the English Language: Early Antiquity offers an excellent opportunity for
"a mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like a soft such a consideration of "Soviet-style" Marxism. In 20
snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the chapters, 10 authors, most of them members of the
details." Many empirically minded archaeologists might Oriental Institute at Leningrad University, analyze the
think so, although use of these terms streamlines the major Old World civilizations (as follows: I. Diakonoff,
text in a way that might not have been possible oth- early Mesopotamia; N. Kozyreva, Old Babylonian
erwise. Mesopotamia; V. Afanasieva, Sumerian Culture; I.
It is typical in European prehistory to resort to the Vinogradov, pharaonic Egypt; I. Lapis, ancient Egyp-
criticism that there are not enough data to support tian culture; G. Il'yin and I. Diakonoff, early India,
anything more than the dry elaboration of chronolog- central Asia, and Iran; N. Jankowska, Asshur, Mitanni,
ical schema. Such arguments are spurious. Compared and Arrapkhe; V. Jakobson, later Mesopotamia; G.
with other parts of the world, the European data permit Giorgadze, the Hittites; I. Diakonoff, Syria, Phoenicia,
a study of the archaeological record with a clarity of and Palestine; Yu. Andreyev, Crete, Mycenae, and ear-
resolution unparalleled in most other places. Hodder ly Greece; Yu. Tsirkin, Phoenician and Greek colo-
has woven enough empirical evidence into TDOE to nization; G. Il'yin and I. Diakonoff, later India, central
provide a solid basis on which to embroider the in- Asia, and Iran; T. Stepugina, China).
terpretive discussion. This, in turn, gives concreteness These essays are introduced with an excellent For-
and substance to the complex and abstract interpretive ward by Philip Kohl; even those quite familiar with
argument, permitting archaeologists not versed in Fou- Marxist theory will appreciate his illuminating analysis
cault and Barthes to become engaged in Hodder's in- of the cultural and historical context in which these
terpretive discussion. chapters must be understood.
Since TDOE is predicated on a largely inductive Early Antiquity is very much a "Soviet"-style Marx-
reading of the evidence, it is difficult to see how it will ist work, in that it reflects little of the variants of Marx-
fundamentally alter the way that most archaeologists ism (and critiques of classic Marxism) expressed by
working on the European Neolithic or elsewhere will contemporary Western scholars (e.g., Bloch, Levi-
conduct their business. More important will be the way Strauss, Hams, Godelier, Braudel, Shanks, and Tilley).
in which it engages the interest of researchers and asks These essays are also rather elementary in level of pre-
them to look at their data in fresh ways. In various sentation; they were written as part of a series of vol-
countries, it will be received differently. My conjecture umes on world history meant for the educated Soviet
is as follows: France-enthusiasm; Germany-dis- citizen, who, as Kohl notes, has a knowledge of Marxist
missal (not enough section drawings of pottery); United terminology and theory that most Western readers do
Kingdom-vigorous debate; Netherlands and Scan- not. The result is that these essays are only sporadically
dinavia-cautious interest (but could use some pollen footnoted and present theory and interpretations large-
diagrams); Eastern Europe-as an example of the ly uncritically. Nonetheless, these chapters are quite
"Hodder School" (contrasted with the processual "Bin- substantive, in that they review the fundamental evi-
ford School"); North America-a range of reaction, dence (both archaeological and historical) of all the
from denunciation of "intellectual nihilism" to guard- major Old World civilizations.
ed approval. One would hope that whatever the re- Diakonoff and his coauthors all have apparently kept
sponse it is based on a sound reading of TDOE, for it the faith with regard to most of classic Marxism. They
is reasonably priced (in paperback), well produced (al- all "contend that a comprehensive view of all ancient
though some of the figures reproduced from other societies, seen in relation to each other, will reveal
sources could have been improved by redrawing), and general outlines of a regularity in the historical devel-
an intriguing and different book that provides a good opment of humanity" (p. 1); they assume an initial
intellectual workout. primitive Chalcolithic communism, followed by the

This content downloaded from 193.54.110.56 on Sat, 06 Jan 2018 19:31:40 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms