11 Grounding the Net: Social Networks, Material Culture and Geography in the Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic of the Near East (~21,000–6,000 cal bce)

Abstract

This chapter first briefly discusses the basis for empirically studying social change using social network analysis to analyse patterns of material culture distribution in order to infer social relations between and within groups in prehistory. It then reviews previous work in this area before focusing on this issue of the significance of geography for the structure of social networks by examining the interaction between material and social networks over the course of the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic periods. In particular, it looks at one significant aspect of the scaling-up of social systems that may have occurred over this period — that of the increasing supplementing of relationships based largely on geographical proximity with largely, if not completely, a-spatial ‘weak ties’.