For the elucidation of a specific prehistoric social structure, general evolutionary theory has been found inadequate, probably because of its conjectural nature regarding the past, with but few instances tested, and its being worded in social anthropological terms, which are quite different from directly observable archaeological categories. Regarding the latter aspect, it is unnecessary to argue that because of the identity of their subject, human society, archaeological and anthropological research should be compatible, at least methodologically. Any bridging (if only partly successful) of the gap between the two subdisciplines is therefore likely to contribute also to the construction of a better-founded and more specific general evolutionary theory. As an illustration, a brief summary of current ideas about the social structure of Central and Western European Early Neolithic societies is presented; only a vague consensus emerges. One way out, attempted here, is by means of the notion of "mode of production" in its neo-Marxist or restricted meaning: a structured set of relations of exploitation, with its own factors, means, and ideology. Principal-components analysis is presented as a means of establishing different patterns of distribution of grave goods in a cemetery; these patterns are explained as reflecting the relations that define a number of such modes and together constitute a specific social formation. For the domestic mode of production, 7 monogamous and 4 duogynous marriages may be witnesses, along with an absence of any absolute specialization by sex. For the lineage mode of production, matrilineality and (dual) uxorilocality are presented; status differences, or differential appropriation, are visible in variations in the quantity of grave goods per grave. The slight specialization (in kind of goods or in orientation) of some of the graves may be related to an as yet unnamed loose, instrumental pattern of exploitation, perhaps even to a number of specialized modes. A supralocal mode of production renders intelligible the presence of foreign artifacts: when, at the end of the Early Neolithic, stress increased (the nature of this stress is unknown, but its presence is shown by the abandonment of an extensive region), the wider kinship system became articulated, also on a uxorilocal basis. Finally, interrelationships among the several modes could be hinted at: some specialists also had high kinship status, and a few foreign goods in the graves of two distinguished lineage members may be interpreted as markers of the subordination of the domestic mode of production to the interests of individuals having some excess authority in the lineage mode. A dynamic feature is observable in the shifting balance of lineage and supralocal modes of production-the latter becoming clearer towards the end of the cemetery's use. The article ends with the posing of some unsolved problems, mainly of method.