4 - Spatial organization and social relations in communities

Summary

In one year residences may grow into a settlement, in two years they may form a town, and in three years they may become a city.

“Wudi benji” in Shiji, by Sima Qian, ca. 100 BC

Introduction

Shifting focus from the household to the community, this chapter examines social forms at the intra-settlement level during the Neolithic period. I will discuss changes in architectural forms and settlement layout, and how these spatial patterns were related to social organization and mechanisms.

The spatial structure of a settlement is not only regulated by the physical requirements of effort expenditure, but also by the need to consistently distinguish between different categories of activity and between people of different social status. In other words, a human community has to define boundaries separating the different portions of the settlement, and relate to the orders of nature and culture within the community (Fletcher 1977: 48–55). These relationships should be reflected in the arrangement of community structures, which may be observed archaeologically. It has long been recognized that spatial relationships among archaeological features and artifacts within a settlement can provide important information about the social and economic patterns of a given community (Chang 1968; Deetz 1968; Hodder 1979; Trigger 1968).

Modeling the spatial patterns of residential areas has also been a major concern in studies of complex societies.