VITA ANTIQUA, 12 (2020) ISSN 2522-9419 (online), ISSN 2519-4542 (print)
Center for Paleoethnological Research
VITA ANTIQUA 12, 2020, Climate Impact on East European Neolithic Societies.
Materials of the session ‘The Climate Impact on European Neolithic Societies During the 8.2-ky BP Events Near River Basins and Lakes’. #Networking, 26th Virtual Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (August 24-30, 2020)
Some remarks on climate impact on prehistoric societies, 15-22
Sławomir Kadrow
Institute of Archaeology, Rzeszуw University
ORCID: 0000-0002-7169-1027
DOI:10.37098/VA-2020-12-15-22
http://doi.org/10.37098/VA-2020-12-15-22
Abstract:
In some archaeological studies there is a tendency emphasize climate with special strength as a driving force of cultural change in studies covering larger areas over longer periods of time. Migrations are often linked to climate change. In contrast, in small-region studies, researchers are more likely to explore internal factors of change, such as inequality and conflict. On the other hand, in publications postulating the impact of climate on changes in prehistoric societies, it is quite easy to notice the dependence of their authors on a specific theoretical option. For this reason, this article provides an overview of them (classical evolutionism, anthropo-geography, culture-historical school, some processualists). For the same reason, selected examples of positive references to climate as a driving force for change and examples where researchers point to other causes are included here. The conclusion stated that even the best documented influence of climatic factors did not affect people directly. As a component of the natural environment that remains outside human culture, climate cannot influence migration or culture change directly. It is part of so called border conditions of cultural and civilizational phenomena, and it may be a necessary condition of cultural change, but never its sufficient condition. Reconstruction of necessary and sufficient conditions requires knowledge of images of the world prevalent in a given society, which involve moral and practical suggestions about how to solve organizational and legal problems in an essential framework of world – view and religion.
Keywords: climate, migrations, culture change, theoretical options, social conflict.
Language: English
PDFCite as:
Kadrow S. 2020. Some remarks on climate impact on prehistoric societies. VITA ANTIQUA 12. Climate Impact on East European Neolithic Societies, p. 15-22.
References:
Arponen, V. P. J., Müller, J., Hofmann, R., Furholt, M., Ribeiro, A., Horn, C., and Hintz, M. 2015. Using the Capability Approach to Conceptualise Inequality in Archaeology: the Case of the Late Neolithic Bosnian Site
OkoliΠte c. 5200– 4600 BCE. Journal of Archaeological Methods and Theory 23: 541–560.
Barth, F. 2005. Britain and the Commonwealth. In F. Barth, A. Gingrich, R. Parkin, and S. Silverman, One Discipline,
Four Ways: British, German, French and American Anthropology, 3–57. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Bátora, J. 2006. Štúdie ku komunikácii medzi Strednou a Východnou Európou v dobe bronzovej. Bratislava.
Binford, L. R. 1962. Archaeology as anthropology. American Antiquity 28: 217–225.
Chapman, J., Higham, T., Slavchev, V., Gaydarska, B., and Honc ,N. 2006. The social context of the emergence, development and abandonment of the Varna cemetery, Bulgaria. European Journal of Archaeology 9(2–3): 159–183.
Childe, V. G. 1936. Man Makes Himself. London: Watts.
Clark, J. G. 1966. The invasion hypothesis in British archaeology. Antiquity 40: 172–189.
Clarke, D. 1978. Analytical Archaeology, 2nd edn. London: Methuen.
Diachenko, A., Kruk, J., and Milisauskas, S. 2016. What does the bell-distribution hide? Spatial behavior and demographis development of the Funnel Beaker Culture populations in Bronocice region, Poland. Sprawozdania Archeologiczne 68: 25–38.
Diachenko, A., Menotti, F. 2012. The gravity model: monitoring the formation and development of hte Tripolye culture giant-settlements in Ukraine. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(4): 2810–2817.
Frank, A. G. 1993. Bronze Age world system cycles. Current Anthropology 34: 383–429.
Gadamer, H.-G. 1975. Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.
Giddens, A. 1984. The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gingrich, A. 2005. The German-speaking countries. In F. Barth, A. Gingrich, R. Parkin, and S. Silverman, One Discipline, Four Ways: British, German, French and American Anthropology, 61–156. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Godelier, M. 1977. Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gradmann, R. 1906. Beziehungen zwischen Pflanzengeeographie und Siedlungdgeschichte. Geographische Zeitschrift 12, 305-325.
Gronenborn, D., Strien, H.-C., Dietrich, S., and Sirocko, F. 2014. ‘Adaptive cycles’ and climate fluctuations: a case study from Linear Pottery Culture in western Central Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 51: 73–83.
Grygiel, R. 2008. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Brześć Kujawski and Osłonki Region 2(1–3). Middle Neolithic. Brześć Kujawski Group of the Lengyel Culture. Łodź: Fundacja Badań Archeologicznych Imienia Profesora Konrada Jażdżewskiego, Muzeum Archeologiczne i Etnograficzne w Łodzi.
Habermas, J. 1976. Zur Rekonstruktion des Historischen Materialismus. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Habermas, J. 1983. Teoria i praktyka. Warszawa: PIW.
Harper, T. 2017. Demography and climate in Late Eneolithic Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania: multiproxy evidence and pollen-based regional corroboration. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 23: 973–982.
Jahnkun, H. 1983. Wprowadzenie do archeologii osadnictwa. Warszawa: MKiSz.
Kadrow, S. 1995. Gospodarka i społeczeństwo. Wczesny okres epoki brązu w Małopolsce, Kraków: IAE PAN.
Kadrow, S. 2010. Examples of Migrations in the Early Phases of the Metal Ages from a Contemporary Sociological Perspective, In K. Dzięgielewski, M. S. Przybyła, A. Gawlik (eds.), Migration in Bronze and Early Iron Age Europe (= Prace Archeologiczne. Studia 63). Kraków 2010, 47-61.
Kadrow, S. 2011. Global Climatic Changes and Culture Change in the Light of More Recent Sociological Concepts – the Mid of 4th Millennium BC in SE Poland. In I. Hildebrandt-Radke, J. Czebreszuk, W. Dörfler, Müller (eds.), Anthropogenic Pressure in the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Central European Lowlands (= Studien zur Archäologie in Ostmitteleuropa 8). Poznań-Bonn: Habelt, 161-171.
Kadrow, S. 2013. Regional research in archaeology in the light of selected traditions of geographical studies. In
Kadrow S., Włodarczak P. (eds.), Environment and subsistence – forty years after Janusz Kruk’s „Settlement studies…” (= Studien zur Archäologie in Ostmitteleuropa 11). Rzeszów, Bonn 2013: Institute of Archaeology, Rzeszów University & Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, 525-531.
Kadrow, S. 2020a. Social Organization and Change. In A. Gardner, M. Lake, and U. Sommer (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2020, 1-22.
Kadrow, S. 2020b. The concept of the ‘stage of reduction and concentration of settlements’ in Neolithic studies: demography, settlements and social conflict. Documenta Praehistorica 47, 232-244.
Kadrow, S. 2020c. Innovations in ceramic technology in the context of culture change north of the Carpathians at the turn of the 6th and 5th millennia BCE. In Furholt, M., Spataro, M. (eds.). Detecting and explaining technological innovation in prehistory (= Scales of transformation 8). Leiden: Sidestone Press 2020, 85-105.
Kalicki, T. 2006. Zapis zmian klimatu oraz działalności człowieka i ich rola w holoceńskiej ewolucji dolin środkowoeuropejskich. Warszawa.
Kienlin, T. L. 2012. Beyond elites: an introduction. In T. L. Kienlin and A. Zimmermann (eds), Beyond Elites: Alternatives to Hierarchical Systems in Modelling Social Formations, 15–32. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt.
Kossinna, G. 1911. Die Herkunft der Germanen, zur Methode der Siedlungsarchäologie. Würzburg: Kabitzsch.
Kotova, N. S. 2005. Beginning of the Eneolithic in the Steppes of Eastern Europe. Sprawozdania Archeologiczne 57, 9-51.
Kremenetski, K. V. 2003. Steppe and Forest-steppe Belt of Eurasia: Holocene Environmental History. In M. Levine, C. Renfrew, and K. Boyle (eds.), Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge: 11–27.
Kristiansen, K. 1987. Centre and periphery in Bronze Age Scandinavia. In M. Rowlands, M. Larsen, and K. Kristiansen (eds), Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 74–85.
Kruk, J. 1973. Studia nad neolitem wyżyn lessowych. Kraków.
Kruk, J. 1993. Rozwój społeczno-gospodarczy i zmiany środowiska przyrodniczego wyżyn lessowych w neolicie (4800-1800 bc). Sprawozdania Archeologiczne 44, 7-17.
Kruk, J., Milisauskas S. 1990. Radiocarbon Dating of Neolithic Assemblages from Bronocice. Przegląd Archeologiczny 37, 195-228.
Kruk, J., Milisauskas, S., Alexandrowicz, S. W., Śnieszko, Z. 1996. Osadnictwo i zmiany środowiska naturalnego wyżyn lessowych. Studium archeologiczne i paleogeograficzne nad neolitem w dorzeczu Nidzicy. Kraków.
Kruk, J., Milisauskas, S., Włodarczak, P. 2018. Real time. Radiocarbon Dates and Bayesian Analysis of the Neolithic Settlement at Bronocice. Fourth Millennium BC. Kraków: IAE PAN.
Lichardus, J., Vladár, J. 1996. Karpatenbecken – Sintašta – Mykene. Ein Beitrag zur Definition der Bronzezeit als historischer Epoche. Slovenská Archeológia 44, 25–93.
Meillassoux, C. 1981. Maidens, Meal, and Money: Capitalism and the Domestic Community. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Milisauskas, S., Kruk, J. 1984. Settlement organization and the appearance of low level hierarchical societies During the neolithic in the Bronocice Microregion, Southeatsrn Poland. Germania 62: 1–29.
Morgan, L. H. 1877. Ancient Society, or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery, through Barbarism to Civilization. New York: World Publishing.
Muller, J. 2016. From the Neolithic to the Iron Age – Demography and Social Agglomeration: The development of Centralized Control? In M. Fernandez-Gotz, D. Krausse (eds.), Eurasia at the Dawn of History: Urbanization and Social Change. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge: 106–124.
Parkin, R. 2005. The French-speaking countries. In F. Barth, A. Gingrich, R. Parkin, and S. Silverman, One Discipline, Four Ways: British, German, French and American Anthropology, 157–256. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Ratzel, F. 1992. Anthropogeographie. Die geographische Verbreitung der Menschen 1. Stuttgart: Verlag von J. Engelhorn.
Ratzel, F. 1891. Anthropogeographie. Die geographische Verbreitung der Menschen 2. Stuttgart: Verlag von J. Engelhorn.
Redman, C. L. 1999. The development of archaeological theory: explaining the past. In G. Barker (ed.), A Companion Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 48–80. London: Routledge.
Sherratt, A. 1993. What would a Bronze-Age world system look like? Relations between temperate Europe and the Mediterranean in later prehistory. Journal of European Archaeology 1(2): 1–58.
Szacki, J. 2007. Historia myśli socjologicznej. Wydanie nowe. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
Thomas, J. 1999. Culture and identity. In G. Barker (ed.), Companion Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 431–46. London: Routledge.
Todorova, H. 2002. Die geographische Lage der Gräberfelder. Paläoklima, Strandverschiebungen und Umwelt der Dobrudscha im 6.-4. Jahrtausend v.Chr. In H. Todorova (ed.), Durankulak, Band II. Die prähstorischen Gräberfelder von Durankulak. Teil 1. Sofia, 17-23.
Wahle, E. 1952. Deutsche Vorzeit. Basel: B. Schwabe.
Pingback: VITA ANTIQUA