Overview

The issue of the social dimension of technology and transformation, seen from the perspective of ‘Habitus’, has repeatedly been discussed in the scientific discourse exploring prehistoric and archaic communities. However, the complexity of related phenomena constantly provokes new approaches in different archaeological contexts, which leads to interesting findings. By presenting the latest studies on the social dimension of technology and transformation, this book contributes to a better understanding of a system of embodied dispositions hidden within Bourdieu's concept of ‘Habitus’. These studies mainly cover European areas; from Scandinavia to Italy, the Balkans to the British Isles, and Ukraine to the Northern Caucasus. In addition, ethnoarchaeological field studies from distant Indonesia are used to interpret the Hallstatt Culture in Europe. The papers span a chronological dimension from the Neolithic to the beginning of the Iron Age and in summary include a diachronic perspective. Rock art, Trypillian megasites, stone axes and adzes, metallurgy, wagons, archery items, ceramics produced on potter’s wheels, mechanisms of cultural genesis and dualistic social systems are examples of the topics discussed. This book also provides comments on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice, including the concept of ‘Habitus’. This book is addressed to international academia, presenting an important set of information and interpretations for archaeologists and readers interested in European prehistory. It comprises contributions to the CRC 1266 International Workshop ‘Habitus? The Social Dimension of Technology and Transformation’, held in 2018 at Kiel University.

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Sławomir Kadrow’s main research interests lie in prehistoric Central Europe. Currently he leads the project Great culture transformation in microregional perspective. Trends of changes inside Danubian farmers in SE Poland. Previously he worked at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków. He was a Fellow of the Humboldt Foundation at Berlin University (FU), afterwards at Bamberg University and in 2018 Mercator Fellow of the CRC 1266 ‘Scales of Transformation’ at Kiel University. Johannes Müller (PhD, University of Freiburg, 1990) is a Professor and Director of the Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University, Germany. He is the founding director of the Johanna Mestorf Academy, Speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre “Scales of Transformation: Human-environmental Interaction in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies” and of the Excellence Cluster “ROOTS – Social, Environmental, and Cultural Connectivity in Past Societies”. He conducts research on Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe, including the challenge of interlinking natural, social, life sciences, and the humanities within an anthropological approach of archaeology. Intensive fieldwork was and is carried out in international teams, e.g., on Tripolye mega-sites in Eastern Europa, the Late Neolithic tell site of Okolište in Bosnia-Hercegovina, different Neolithic domestic and burial sites in Northern Germany, and Early Bronze Age sites in Greater Poland. Ethnoarchaeological fieldwork has been conducted, e.g., in India. Within the Kiel Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes”, now the Young Academy of ROOTS, and the Scandinavian Graduate School “Dialogues of the Past”, Johannes Müller promotes international PhD projects. Key publications: Johannes Müller Müller, J. and Diachenko, A. 2019. Tracing long-term demographic changes: The issue of spatial scales. PLoS ONE 14, e0208739. Müller, J., 2019. Boom and bust, hierarchy and balance: From landscape to social meaning – Megaliths and societies in Northern Central Europe, in: Müller, J., Hinz, M., Wunderlich, M. (eds.), Megaliths – Societies – Landscapes. Early monumentality and social differentiation in Neolithic Europe. Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH: Bonn, 29-74. Müller, J., 2018. Social memories and site biographies: construction and perception in nonliterate societies, in: Bakels, C.C., Bourgeois, Q.P.J., Fontijn, D.R., Jansen, R. (eds.), Local communities in the Big World of prehistoric Northwest Europe. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 49. Sidestone Press: Leiden, 9-17. Müller, J., Arponen, V.P.J., Hofmann, R., Ohlrau, R. 2017. The Appearance of Social Inequalities: Cases of Neolithic and Chalcolithic Societies. Origini 38 (2015-2), 65-86. Müller, J., Rassmann, K., Videiko, M., 2016. Trypillia Mega-Sites and European Prehistory: 4100- 3400 BCE. Themes in Contemporary Archaeology. London: Routledge. Müller, J. and Peterson, R., 2015. Ceramics and Society in Northern Europe, in: Fowler, C., Harding, J., Hofmann, D. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Müller, J., Hinz, M., Ullrich, M. 2015. Bell Beakers – Chronology, Innovation and Memory. A Multivariate Approach, in: Martinez, M.P.P. and Salanova, L. (eds.), The Bell Beaker Transition in Europe. Oxford: Oxbow, 57–68. Müller, J., 2014. 4100–2700 B.C. Monuments and Ideologies in the Neolithic Landscape, in: Osborne, J.F. (ed.), Approaching Monumentality in Archaeology. New York: New York University Press, 181–217.

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