For equalities are plural: reassessing the social in Europe during the third millennium bc

Abstract

The impact of evolutionary thought is fundamental to the archaeological perception that the third millennium bc in Europe is a period of highly developed social hierarchy. Following a critique of previous uses of the evolutionary frame of reference to model understandings of the material culture for this period, I suggest an alternative reading on the basis of a polythetic analysis of several categories of data (funerary practices, ceramics, settlement pattern). The two major archaeological complexes involved are characterized by the widespread diffusion of categories of artefacts and associated ideas. The networks therefore established are paralleled by a series of other interaction processes indicated by regionally homogeneous patterns in material culture. In sum, this entire system functions because it draws on a relationship of equality between the involved partners, individuals or communities, rather than social hierarchy.