Becoming Neolithic in words, thoughts and deeds

Mithen, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3391-7443 (2019) Becoming Neolithic in words, thoughts and deeds. Journal of Social Archaeology, 19 (1). pp. 67-91. ISSN 1469-6053 doi: 10.1177/1469605318793958

Abstract/Summary

How did people come to ‘think Neolithic’? While there has been considerable progress on reconstructing the environmental, economic, technological and social changes associated with the transition from mobile hunter-gathering to sedentary farming and herding communities, we remain limited in our understanding of how Neolithic culture in its most profound sense arose. I suggest that the formation of new words required for that new lifestyle was as much a driver as a consequence of the Neolithic transition, illustrating this with a sample of Neolithic innovations from the southern Levant that appear likely to have required new words. Such words, I argue, helped to establish new concepts in the mind, shaped thought, influenced perception and ultimately the human deeds in the world that left an archaeological trace.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/78473
Identification Number/DOI	10.1177/1469605318793958
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Social Archaeology Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Archaeology
Publisher	SAGE
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