Tribal boundaries: Stylistic variability and social boundary maintenance during the transition to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain

Abstract

This paper explores the process of boundary formation and maintenance in ‘tribal’ societies by examining stylistic attributes in material culture during the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age in the eastern Carpathian Basin. Stylistic variability is used as a measure of social interaction and can be used to identify patterns of boundary creation and maintenance within the Late Neolithic (Tisza-Herpály-Csőszhalom Complex) and Early Copper Age (Tiszapolgár) cultures that occupied the region. The stylistic analyses focus on three social and geographic scales. They indicate that social boundaries became more fluid and permeable at the beginning of the Copper Age, allowing more extensive interaction across larger social networks, suggesting that the changes in social organization may be attributed to scalar stress associated with the internal organization of societies during the Late Neolithic. The patterns presented here demonstrate that archaeological considerations of stylistic variability generate the most satisfying results when they consider several different geographic and social scales.