Gender anthropology of prehistoric populations: The case of 'improperly' oriented graves at the Mokrin necropolis

Ovaj rad bavi se problemima iz domena antropologije roda u praistorijskom kontekstu. Konkretno, cilj je da se osvetli zašto su određene individue muškog i ženskog pola orijentisane suprotno striktnoj normi koja je važila za muškarce i žene na nekropoli ranog bronzanog doba u Mokrinu kod Kikinde. Analizom su obuhvaćena tri domena: fizičke aktivnosti, grobni prilozi i prostorna struktura nekropole. Na osnovu analize može se zaključiti da su u mokrinskom društvu ranog bronzanog doba postojali invertovani rodni identiteti.This paper explores some gender anthropology issues in a prehistoric context. Specifically, the paper attempts to shed light on the question of why certain male and female persons were interred in positions contrary to the strict norm that applied to the burial of men and women at the early Bronze Age necropolis in the town of Mokrin near Kikinda. Three elements have been analyzed, namely physical activities, funerary offerings, and the layout of the necropolis. The analysis points to the conclusion that in the early Bronze Age society of Mokrin inverted gender identities were to be found

Nomadic pastoralism in the Early Bronze Age of the central Balkans evaluation of background knowledge

The aim of the paper is to examine background knowledge about the orga­nizational properties of mobile pastoral groups in order to assess the likelihood of the existence of pastoral nomads in the Early Bronze Age in the central Balkans. The patterning found by A. L. Johnson (2002) is taken as a point of departure for the cross-cultural analysis conducted in this study. Johnson's findings are in the main corroborated. Acquired knowledge about the workings of pastoral societies suggests that highly mobile pastoral groups should not be expected in the Early Bronze Age of the central Balkans

Nomadic pastoralism in the Early Bronze Age of the central Balkans evaluation of background knowledge

The aim of the paper is to examine background knowledge about the orga­nizational properties of mobile pastoral groups in order to assess the likelihood of the existence of pastoral nomads in the Early Bronze Age in the central Balkans. The patterning found by A. L. Johnson (2002) is taken as a point of departure for the cross-cultural analysis conducted in this study. Johnson’s findings are in the main corroborated. Acquired knowledge about the workings of pastoral societies suggests that highly mobile pastoral groups should not be expected in the Early Bronze Age of the central Balkans

Contextual analysis of fragmentation of the anthropomorphic figurines from the late Neolithic site of Selevac

Pronalaženje odgovora na pitanje šta su predstavljale i čemu su služile antropomorfne figurine u kasnom neolitu Balkana predstavlja jedan od najtežih zadataka praistorijske arheologije. S obzirom na to da nije moguće samo na osnovu formalnih atributa figurina doći do ovog odgovora, alternativni pristup je da se druge klase arheoloških podataka iskoriste kao uporedni okviri za sagledavanje varijacije formalnih atributa figurina. Ukoliko se u jednu ravan stave koncepcija kulturne biografije predmeta Igora Kopitofa i Čepmenova hipoteza o fragmentaciji kasnoneolitskih antropomorfnih figurina sa područja Balkana, može se dedukovati hipoteza da postoji veza između arheološkog konteksta u kome je figurina pronađena, kao uporednog okvira za trajektoriju upotrebnog ciklusa figurine, i modaliteta njene fragmentacije kao direktnog pokazatelja posledica upotrebe (namernog ili slučajnog lomljenja). Cilj ovog rada jeste da na podacima sa lokaliteta Selevac testira ovu hipotezu. Na tabelu u kojoj su ukršteni podaci o kontekstu i fragmentaciji, tj. o zastupljenosti pojedinih kategorija fragmentacije po arheološkim kontekstima, primenjeni su analiza korespondencije i hi kvadrat test. Rezultati ukazuju na to da podaci potkrepljuju osnovnu hipotezu tj. da postoji statistički značajna veza između konteksta i modaliteta fragmentacije. Cele figurine dominiraju u kućama, a transverzalno polomljene figurine u jamama. Takođe, podaci sa Selevca ukazuju na to da je fragmentacija figurina bila pristrasna u odnosu na veličinu figurine - veće figurine su češće fragmentovane od manjih figurina.The biographical approach to material culture and the hypothesis of deliberate fragmentation of anthropomorphic figurines are used in this paper to deduce a hypothesis that there should be an association between particular fragmentation categories and context types in the archaeological record of the Late Neolithic settlements in Central Balkans. This hypothesis is tested using published data from the site of Selevac by performing correspondence analysis and chi-square test on a contingency table in which categories of fragmentation are cross-tabulated with context types. The results are statistically significant, suggesting that complete figurines are associated with houses while transversely broken figurines are associated with pits. There is also evidence that figurines were broken differentially in respect to their original size.

A tentative attempt to estimate the systemic number of the late neolithic Vinča culture figurines

Cilj ovog rada je da se oceni broj figurina koje su bile istovremeno u upotrebi u domaćinstvima kasnoneolitske vinčanske kulture. Broj akumuliranih figurina i kuća su uzeti kao empirijska osnova. S obzirom na kompleksnost dinamike života naselja, upotrebe figurina i formacionih procesa, količnik broja akumuliranih figurina i broja akumuliranih kuća predstavlja tek indirektan odraz sistemskog broja figurina. Ideja je da se dedukuje kakav bi bio odnos broja akumuliranih figurina prema broju akumuliranih kuća pod različitim pretpostavkama o dinamici upotrebe figurina. Imajući u vidu ogradu da je čitava analitička procedura veoma spekulativna i ne iscrpljuje sve mogućnosti upotrebe figurina, može se reći da rezultati ukazuju na to da oni modeli koji pretpostavljaju da je svako domaćinstvo imalo po jednu figurinu i da je njen životni vek bio jednak dužini trajanja ljudske generacije, predviđaju ishode koji su uporedivi sa onim što zapravo opažamo u arheološkom zapisu.In this paper an attempt is made to estimate the number of figurines which were in 'use' in households of the Late Neolithic Vinča culture. The number of accumulated figurines and houses is used as a starting point. Given the complexities of the settlement dynamic, figurine use and the formation processes of the archaeological record, the ratio of the number of accumulated of figurines to the number of accumulated houses is only an indirect reflection of the systemic number of figurines. Different figurine use scenarios are evaluated in order to see what the result would be. Keeping in mind that the entire analytical procedure is highly speculative and the range of tested models is far from exhaustive, the results suggest that scenarios resting on the assumption that there was a single figurine per household and that the average use-life of the figurine was equal to the average human generation length predict outcomes that are comparable to the actual archaeological situation

An exercise in archaeological demography: estimating the population size of Late Neolithic settlements in the Central Balkans

This paper reflects on the methodology for estimating population size from settlement data. Archaeologists are faced with a static record of houses, which is the result of dynamic processes of population growth and house use. There is no simple relationship between the total number of houses and population size. In order to produce more realistic estimates of population size, a quantitative model is presented which takes into account population dynamics and the dynamics of house accumulation. The model is used to estimate the population size of three Late Neolithic settlements in Southeast Europe: Gomolava, Divostin and Uivar.V članku razmišljam o metodologiji za ocenjevanje velikosti populacije iz naselbinskih podatkov. Arheologi so soočeni s statičnimi podatki o hišah, ki pa predstavljajo posledico dinamičnih procesov rasti prebivalstva in uporabe hiš. Skupno število hiš in velikost populacije ne predstavljata preprostega odnosa. Predstavljam kvantitativni model, ki upošteva populacijsko dinamiko in dinamiko akumulacije hiš, da bi lahko bolj realistično ocenil velikost populacije. Model je uporabljen za oceno velikosti populacije na treh poznoneolitskih najdiščih v jugovzhodni Evropi: Gomolava, Divostin in Uivar

Social complexity and inequality in the Late Neolithic of the Central Balkans: reviewing the evidence

The aim of this paper is to review and critically evaluate relevant archaeological evidence regarding recent claims about the social complexity of Late Neolithic societies in the Central Balkans. Theory suggests that the relevant evidence should be related to population size, economic intensification, ranking, and craft specialisation. It is concluded that, although there are indications that inequalities existed and also demographic potential for organisational complexity, there is no unambiguous evidence that institutionalised inequality in the form of complex polities such as chiefdoms or states ever developed.Namen tega članka je pregled in kritična ocena ključnih arheoloških dokazov za nedavno postavljene trditve o družbeni kompleksnosti pozno-neolitskih družb na področju centralnega Balkana. Teoretske diskusije kažejo, da je te dokaze potrebno iskati v velikosti populacij, povečanju proizvodnje, pojavu razredne družbe in obrtni specializaciji. Sklepamo, da kljub kazalcem obstoja družbene neenakosti in demografskega potenciala za organizacijsko kompleksnost ni nedvoumnih dokazov o tem, da se je v tem obdobju kdaj razvila institucionalizirana neenakost v obliki kompleksnih ureditev, kot so poglavarstva ali države

The goodness of fit and statistical significance of seriation solutions

This paper presents a method for determining the statistical significance and goodness of fit of seriation solutions based on correspondence analysis. The basic assumption is that seriation solutions corresponding to relative chronological sequences should have unimodal distributions of types across assemblages in a sequence. In order to evaluate significance of chronological signal in data, the observed number of modes of a seriation solution based on correspondence analysis is compared to a distribution of number of modes generated by randomization of the original data table. A quantitative measure of the goodness of fit is presented. The method is tested on two data sets: 1) archaeological data with a known chronological ordering 2) non-archaeological data without a chronological patterning. The method successfully detected a significant chronological signal in the former, and failed to detect it in the latter.This is the peer-reviewed version of the article: Porčić, M. The Goodness of Fit and Statistical Significance of Seriation Solutions. Journal of Archaeological Science 2013, 40 (12), 4552–4559. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.07.013

De facto refuse or structured deposition? House inventories of the late neolithic Vinča culture

The goal of this paper is to determine whether there are reasons to believe that inventories from the Late Neolithic Vinča culture houses do not represent systemic assemblages and to offer an interpretation of household assemblage variation. Pottery inventories from Vinča culture houses were compared to the ethnographically recorded range of variation in household inventory size. The discard equation was used to make projections of the accumulated assemblages from house assemblages for comparison with empirically observed accumulated assemblages. It is concluded that in general there is no reason to reject the assumption that Vinča household inventories reflect systemic assemblages. Moreover, the patterns of inventory variability can be meaningfully interpreted in social ter

Archaeology, evolution and Darwinism

U ovom radu predstavljen je kratak istorijat uticaja evolucionističkih ideja na antropologiju i arheologiju. U fokusu su četiri najznačajnije 'škole' evolucionističke misli: klasični evolucionizam XIX veka, neoevolucionizam, sociobiologija i neodarvinistička arheolologija. Osnovni zaključak ovog teksta jeste da je ideja socio-kulturne evolucije, shvaćena u najširem smislu, ostavila neizbrisivi trag na antropološku i arheološku teoriju, kao i da još uvek predstavlja koristan teorijski okvir za nova istraživanja.This paper presents a short history of the influence evolutionary thinking has had on anthropology and archaeology. The focus is on four major 'schools' in evolutionist thought: the classical evolutionism of the 19th century, Neo-evolutionism, social biology (sociobiology) and Neo-Darwinian archaeology. The basic conclusion of this text is that the idea of socio-cultural evolution, understood in the broadest sense, has left a lasting impression on anthropological and archeological theory, and that it still represents a useful theoretical framework for new research