Lost and Found Paradigms: Creation of the Beaker world

Description

In book: Kristiansen K., Šmejda L., Turek J. (Eds.) Paradigm Found. Archaeological Theory Present, Past And Future. Essays in Honour of Evžen Neustupný. — Oxbow Books, 2015. — pp. 263-277."Almost 40 years ago Evžen Neustupný announced the major change in the perception of material culture and culture change in prehistoric Europe (Paradigm Lost – in Oberried 1974, Neustupný 1976). He emphasized that the geographic spread of artefacts and decorative styles is not depending solely on migrations of people. In this chapter I am going to discuss motives that caused rapid spread of cultural uniformity during the third millennium BC in Europe. The ways of the spread of ‘Beaker Package’ over most of Central and Western Europe might have been different from region to region. The prestigious artefacts were circulated through trading, migration by infiltration, inter-regional marriages and mobility of individuals. This, however, does not explain why people from geographically and culturally distant regions suddenly shared certain uniform style and symbolic system. The new symbolic system and set package of significant artefacts helped to reinforce the collective identity and maintained range of spiritual activities. Within the individualized funerary practices people emphasized the communication with ancestors and presentation of the social status, as well as, confirmation of social hierarchy and reinforcement of genealogical system of hereditary wealth of individuals and families. I believe that this unification and rapid spread of shared uniformity occurred due to the shared ideology that used the new assemblage of Beaker Package as formal expression of symbolical and cosmological unity."