Book
2022. Çukuriçi Höyük 4: Household economics in the Early Bronze Age Aegean. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.
Description
“Çukuriçi Höyük 4. Household Economics in the Early Bronze Age Aegean" is a pioneering interdisciplinary account of households and socio-political organization in Aegean prehistory, written by a socio-cultural anthropologist embedded in a team of prehistoric archaeologists.
Sabina Cveček applies methods of historical anthropology to address key issues in discussing households and socio-political organization at the dawn of the Bronze Age Aegean and beyond. By navigating through the “dwelling perspective” of the people at two prehistoric mound sites, namely Çukuriçi Höyük in western Anatolia (Turkey) and Platia Magoula Zarkou in Thessaly (Greece), Cveček scrutinizes the conflicting relations between metanarratives and site-based archaeological contexts, complemented by historical ethnographic accounts.
This unique interdisciplinary contribution will appeal not only to specialists in Aegean prehistory and historical anthropologists but also to scholars in the social sciences and humanities. It may inspire students to recognize the unparalleled value of archaeological materiality in addressing non-state imaginary communities, alongside historical, ethnographic, and other written sources.
Reviews
"A highly original collaboration with archaeologists … If social anthropology is to continue its foundational interest in full sociocultural diversity, it must now engage with historical sources that, as Cveček shows, can and should include archaeology … this book manuscript could be transformational for her discipline."
—Timothy Earle, Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)
"By applying historical anthropology and sociocultural-anthropological models of “big-man” vs. “great-man” societies, the author seeks a more sophisticated understanding of sociocultural processes in the archaeological record than hitherto allowed by more limited archaeological applications of models of social organization. The work admirably fulfills this aim."
—Peter Whiteley, Curator of North American Ethnology, American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY)
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