Matrilokalität in der Bandkeramik? Ein ethnologisches Modell und seine Implikationen

Abstract

The article focuses on an ethnological processual model developed by W.T. Divale, connecting the (1) migration of groups of little social complexity into an already inhabited area with (2) intercultural warfare and (3) emerging matrilocality. Using the model to explain the mesolithic/neolithic transition in Central Europe no archaeological evidence can be found to meet its fundamental requirements. However, the negative evidence is quite coherent and thus confirms interpretive models that reject massive migrations, intercultural
warfare and Early Bandceramic matrilocality. As the distribution of stylistic patterns in pottery implicitly suggests, Early Bandceramic settlers obviously lived in patrilocally structured groups. Non-violent contacts - like exchange and intermarriage - between bandceramic and mesolithic groups seem to have been the rule, leading to the step-wise acculturation of the mesolithic people.