General Spatial Behaviour in Small Dwellings: a Preliminary Study in Ethnoarchaeology and Social Psychology

Ole Gr¢n

Abstract O n the basis of distribu tion pallcrns of artifacts repealed al a number of Maglcmosc sit es - apparently inside the dwe ll ing areas - a gene ral discussion is presented of the organization of social spa<.'c within the dwe ll ings of hUnlCr·ga lhc rcrs . A number of general rules fo r such spatial structuring arc postu!;:lIcd on the basis o f C~I SCS drawn frum an thropology and from socia l psycho· logy. The arch;J(,:ulogica l usefulness o f such spati al pall crns is hriefl y di scussed .

INTRODUCTION

During studies of the horizonta l d istribution o f d iffe re nt artifac t types a t Magle mose sites o f restric­ted size (maximum diameter o f the main concen­trati o n - 10 m) a nd with typo logica ll y ho moge neous mate ri <.l l. it became clear tha t the micro liths o n a number o f sites we re d istributed in a ve ry cha racte r­is tic bipa rt ite pa tte rn . In a ll these cases. it appeared that this pa tt e rn had a specific o rie nta tio n in re latio n to the pre histo ric la ke shore (Fig. I ). In o ne case -the well-preserved recta ngul a r hut fl oor fro m U I­kestrup I (measuring 6 x 4 m) - the bipartit e patte rn was found inside the hut <:I rea , O n the b<:lsis of a num ber o f anthro po logica ll y known cases , two assumptio ns were made: (i) tha t the two microlith conce ntr<:l tio ns re present wo rki ng a reas o f fixed locatio n in dwe ll ings o f uniform shape, size a nd in te rio r o rgan iza tion ; and (ii) th at these dwellings had approx ima te ly the same o ri entati on in re latio n to the adj acent la ke sho re ,

Anothe r se ri es of sites revea led a diffe re nt pa tte rn in the ho rizonta l d istributio n o f micro liths, showing only a single concentratio n . A t Duvensee W.8 a nd. proba bly, Ulkestrup II this pa tte rn is fo und inside huts of less th a n 15 m2 - in the latte r case apparently with the entrance o rient ated towards the sho re, as in the la rge r hut s (G r0n 1987a).

A study o f th e positio n o f fire places inside the hut <:I reas suppo rted the initia l impressio n that th e two hut types had cont ained house ho lds consisting of one or two fa mili es. respective ly, In three cases whe re re ma ins o f fire pl aces were fo und associ<:l ted with the sma lle r dwelling type, the existe nce of o nly one fireplC:lce W<:lS indi ca ted , With rega rd to the la rger dwe lling type. two fi repl aces we re indi cated in

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three o ut of fo ur cases , where thi s could be studied . In each hut type. fi re pl aces seemed to have fi xed locati ons. A t U lkestrup I , whe re two firep laces co uld be expected , but o nly one was fo und duri ng excavatio n ; the fi repl ace occupied a cen tra l positio n closer to the wate r th an the micro liths. Whe reas in the la rger dwe llings the fire pl aces we re placed in fro nt of the micro lith concentrations in re lation to the lake sho re , with in the smalle r ones they were placed beside the m . This de monstra tes that the bipa rtite patte rns do not consist o f two non­co nte mporaneous small units , Fu rthermore, it in­dicates tha t th e orga nization o f activi ties C:lround the fire places was indepe nde nt of the wind directio n, a nd thus re fl ects a n indoo r situation , For a mo re de ta iled discussio n of the dwell ings o f the Magle­mose culture , see G r0n ( 1983, 1984. 1987a , 1987b , 1988) .

ETHNOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE Collectio n o f anthro po logical da ta concerning the spatia l he haviour o f primiti ve cultures in the ir dwe llings - especia ll y hunte r-gathere r socie ties -became a natura l pa rt of the study. T he more in for ma tio n was compi led , the more it beca me evide nt that pa tte rned behaviour in dwellings ac­cording to culture-specific rules was a universal phe no me no n th at had not bee n give n sufficie nt a tte nt ion in archaeological resea rch ,

In his book TelliS, Architecture of the Nomac/s , To rvC1 ld Faegre writes:

T he space wi thin the o rdinary te nt is not large a nd so must be carefully o rganized, This org<l nizat ion is a lways a refl ection of socia l orga niza tion a nd de te r­mines where people a re seated and where possessions me kept. The re is nlways a division between the me n's and women's sides of Ihe Te nt. The li ne beTwee n the sides may be qu ite strict. as in Arab cultures where the re is a d ividing curtai n and where no adult male but the husba nd ever e nters the woman's side, o r the line may be loose a nd people of both sexes may move abou t freely as with the Inuit. This div ision of the te nt .liso constitutes a separation of the type of work for which each sex is responsible , so the looms, churns, and utensils a rc kep t a nd used on thc women's side while the saddles. harnesses. a nd weapons a rc kept on the men's side ( 1979: 7),

• N u

SV A:ROBORG II

ULKESTRUP I I

LIM IT OF EXCAVATION

LIM IT OF INTERPOLATION

BURNED POLES

POLES

PROPOSED HUT WALL

(r:..~ ,:) FI RE PLACE/ROASTI NG PLACE

(EVENT UA LLY TWO)

... N •

LIMIT OF EXCAVATION BANK L I N[5

LIMIT Of INTERPOLATION , c ________ ~-- ~

:;:::;::: WASTE LAYER WA STE LAYER

DUVENSEE W 6 G TRACES OF F IREPLACE!

ROAST! NCi PLACE

Figure I Distribution o f microliths and IOc'lt ions of hea rth s and waste layers at five Maglcmosian sites: Duvcnscc W.6. Sva nc moscn 28. Sv.crdborg II. Ulkcstrup I and Ulk cstrup II.

In his very important work Dtls System de,. Rawneillleiiul1g ill dell Bellllusungell def IIordenrolls­i.,eilell VOlker. Gustav Rank writes:

In ci ncm iibcrtragcncn Sinnc bcdcutct die Raumord­nllng somit cin Abbild des gcsa mtc n gcsc ll schaft­lichen Aufbaus de f bctrcffcnden Volker im K lcinen. im welchem sich aile hier lU T ,lge tretenden Bezie­hunge n zwischen dcn einzclncil Gcncratio l1cn. Alter­sklasse n. Gesellschaftsschichten. G cschlechtern li nd die Arbcitstcilung zwischcn dicsen in konzclllricrtcr Form wicderspicgc ln . Da sich nun dieses Ord nungs­system sozusagen organisch auf wirtschaftlich-sozialer G rundlagc ausgcbildcl hat. in Verbindung mit man­nigfachen re ligiosen Vorstcllungcn. so i.w danir z lIg­leich gl'.mgt. dass es als e;ne Flmktion des iikollomisch· sozialell 1111(1 geistigen Lebells flll!z lI!assell ist (1951 : I ~ I ) .

Where hunter-gatherers are conce rned . f.I world­wide geographica l dislributio n o f the habit o f organizing social space inside dwell ings ca n be docume nted . For Ihe Tierra de l Fuego tribes. Ihe docum entatio n is Ihe deta il ed descriptions made by Fathe r Marlin G usinde ( 1931) . For Ihe Ind ia ns o f the Plains. numerous descript ions ex ist of the stri ct tepee e liquelle (Morice 19 10 : Parker 1975: Faegre

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1979) , while one of the most interesting studies of organi zation of social space in dwellings of hunter­ga lherers has bee n made by Adria n Tanner in his work on the forest Indians in the area around Lake Mistassini in Ca nada (Ta nner 1979).

T his is also well-documented for Esk imo societies. A uniform standard pattern is fOllnd , the wife having her place in Ihe o ul e rm osl pari o f the platform 10 the side where her cook ing utensils are , next to her the smallest child, Ih en th e husba nd (bei ng placed approxi mate ly in the ce nl re), and afte r him Ihe other childre n (Bal ikci 1970; Briggs 1970; David Damas. pe rs. comm .).

The nort he rn Eurasian area (from Ihe Lapps o f northern Scandinavia to the Ainu of Sachlin) is covered by R,jnk 's publicalio n. from which a general obse rvat ion has already been quoled (R,jnk 195 1).

For Africa , there is som e documentmion of pa lle rned behaviour in Ihe hulS of the pygmies (Gusinde 1956). With Ihe bushme n studi ed by Ihe Marsha ll family . il was o bserved Ihal o ne side o f Ihe fireplace in front of the hut was regarded as the women's side and the other as the men's. If no

screen was constructed, it was the custom to thrust two upright sticks into the ground to represent the entrance, so th <l t the family might orientate itse lf (Marshall 1959: 354).

Organization of dwelling space among the Anda­man islanders was not focused upon in either E. H . Man's or Radcliffe·Brown's studies. However, there are so me indica tions that the single-famil y dwellings and the equally o rga nized living areas of the single fami lies in communal dwellings were divided into one part for the males (norm ally to the left ?) and one for the females (normally to the right?) - not unlike ly through the central fireplace. Since cooking for the single family was regarded as a female activit y, and the food in all cases was stored to the right of the single-fam ily firep laces in a twelve-fa mily communal hut described , and since right and left in other connections are regarded as feminine and masculine sides respectively. it seems likely that some division or sexu<l l 'polarization' existed within these dwellings (Radcliffe-Brown 1964) . This is clea rly supported by a notion that unmarried women and men had to occupy opposite e nds within single­family dwellings , whereas the married couples were placed in between (Man 1883: 108 , no te I) .

The habit of o rgan izing the space inside the windbreaks is also documented for Australia (Ti n­dale 1972. 1974).

It must be stressed that the habit of organizi ng the soci,)1 space inside dwellings is by no means restrict­ed to nomadic cultures. It is also found in a number of recent farming communities (e.g. Rank 1949), and according to E. T . Hall is prese nt in the orga niza tion of modern western houses (Hall 1969).

Thus culture-specific sp<l ti all y structured behav­iour inside dwellings must be regarded as a general human characteristic. From an archaeological point of view. this opens possibiliti es for analyzing the social structure of prehistoric households from the spa tial distribution of artifacts and structural re­mains inside their dwell ings. As mentioned, this has already been a ttempted on th e si tes of the Magle­mose culture (GrQln 1983, 1987(/).

In th e an th ropologica l record the pattern of behaviour in habitations tends to be less complicated th e smaller the habit ations are. This is probably due to the fact th at in dwellings of restricted size. the inhabitants have to restrict th eir activities spati ally. The sa me place. th erefore. very often serves as sleepi ng, working and si tting space for one person . From an archaeological po int of view. this tendency favours research on prehistoric nomadic cultures, which have obvious reasons for using dwellings of restricted size.

SPATIAL ORGANIZATION IN PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS To understand how far the phenomenon concerned

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can be used for analysis of the socia l structure of prehistoric househo lds, it is important to understand what factors are behind it and what function it might have. Regard ing it as a cultural tradition which dispersed from a single place of origin , in the ciassic anthropological way , seems rather unproductive because of its world-wide distribution (even in regions th at culturally have been isolated for a long time - e.g. Australia) and its connection with all kinds of economies. Rather , it has proved far more beneficial to look at the matter from a psychological point of view, as human spati al behaviour in dwellings to a large extent seems to be regulated by a number of basic psychological factors. Since the least complicated and , in relation to hunter­gatherers, most relevant dwelling type is the tent , hut , or house of restricted size consisting of one undivided room within which sleeping and eating are normally c<lrried out , and to which access is obtained th rough one normally-used entrance, the following discussion will focus on this type.

From social psychology it is known that decreasing distance between individuals is correlated with in­creasing intimacy . If a number of individuals are to be placed within relatively restricted space, unneces­sary tensions are avoided if the spatial distances between them are proportional to their 'distances ' sociall y and personally (Hall 1969; McFeat 1974). Just such 'conflict damping' structuring of the oc­cupation within the dwelling space can be observed with the anthropologically described placing pat­terns. O ne example is the organizational patterns of th e Mistassini Cree , studied in detail by Adrian Tanner ( 1979). In the one- family dwelling (Fig. 2),

doorway .'

Married couple Fig// re 2 Location of individuals in a Mistassini one-family

dwelling.

the parents are placed beside each other opposite the door. The unmarried females (daughte rs and women adopted by the family aft er having lost their spouses) sit after the mother in o rder of increasing age. In the same way the unm arried males are ordered symmetricall y after the fath er. A man and a woman adopted by a family after having lost their spouses will be the two most ' unrelated' persons according to this pattern .

A doorway

+ ... '.',""". ,.". '.,.-i',·.;,:,:·,:', .. " I

female I female

?I------Family I Family -----L ..

CDi® male male

I Family I Family

®I@ fema le I female

male male

I

B

female

door way

+ I I I female

< 1---- Family jFamilY

CD/ "' ® //FamiIY"<, male

'.'~~!t( ® "'.~~' male

male female

E

Figurt' 3 Organization of the dwell in g space - with the Mistassini in four- (A) amI three-family (0) co mm unal dwel li ngs: wi th the Eskimos in two-family (e) igloos: anu with the Lapps in twn-famil y te nl s ( D). E shows the patt e rn suggcstcu fo r dwellin gs int e rpre ted as the two-fami ly Jwcllings of the Maglc mosc culture.

One kind of con fli ct th at considerable efforts arc o ft en made to avoid is interna l sexua l con niet in house holds consisting of two or morc fami lies. This is often rcAccted in the placing patterns. A mo ngst th e Mislass ini. th e int erior of com munal dwell ings is a rranged like the inte rior of a num be r o f separate dwellings . but in such a way that the two fam ilies nearest the ent rance have their wome n placed by the door. while the ma les are p laced nea rer to th e rear of the dwe ll ing. T he two following fa mili es are orien tated so that the ma les are nearest the door (Fig . 3, A). A conseque nce of this is that pe rsons fro l11 o ne fami ly are placed nearest to persons o f th e ir own sex from the ne ighbouring fa milies. If a n uneven num be r of fami lies occupy a commun a l dwelling. effo rt is made to mark the se parati on of the single famili es ma rc c learly by the fo rm o f the dwe lling (Fig. 3, B) (Tan ne r 1979). The Esk imos living in two-fami ly huts use a symmetrica l orga n­iza tio n whe re the two wome n are p laced at the o ut er ends of thc sleeping platform. the n comc the sma lles t infants on each side. th e n the two men. and

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in the middle the rest of the children (Fig. 3, C) (B riggs 1970; Jenn ess 1970; Boas 1972). T he Lapps (a mong who m severa l groups unt il recen tl y practised hunting and gathe ring) in the ir two-fa mily dwe ll ings are known to have used a simil a r sym me trica l o rgan iza tio n (Fig. 3 , 0; Riink 195 1; Vorren and Manke r 1976). Conflic t-damping structures of the kind discllssed he re a lso seem to be inherent in the o rga ni za tio n patte rn in the proposed two-fami ly dwc llings o f the Maglemose cult ure (Fig, 3, E).

The fac t tha t each indi vid ual has his o r he r ow n cl ea rly defined place within the dwe ll ing seems to

have a connict-damp ing effect in itse lf. Jea n L. Briggs offers a rathe r inte res ting description of how she was able to withdraw from what was going o n around her and. to a ce rta in degree. isola te he rself with in the borders of her personal place defined by her sta tus as daughter in the igloo of her "adopted" Esk im o parents. T hc sa mc phe no menon was obse rv­ed with the Esk im o men by Binford ( Briggs 1970; Binford IY83).

Toge th e r with the psycho logists Ask E lklit and

Jan ne Albertse n. I have studied the same kind of ' invisibl e screen-e ffect' within an expe rime nt a l re­co nstructio n of a two-famil y Maglcmose dwe lling. The two fam ilies involved in the experime nt had to stay inside their o wn part o f the dwe lling. Furt her­more, the females had to stay inside the half near the en trance whereas the ma les had to stay inside the o the r half. Rathe r quickly - a nd much mo re clearl y than expected - a pola rization be tween the two famili es de veloped . th e pe rsons in the experi me nt o nly to a lim ited degree feelin g in volved in what was happening o n the o ther side of the border. Eve n when o ne of the families was eating. whereas the o ther had no food prepared and was hungry and ti red. the reactions from the latter - even from the children - were surprisingly limited!

In a few cases. a restricted use o f real curta ins seems to underline the cha racte r of the in visible bo rde rs <Hollnd the pe rso na l areas o f every indivi­dual. Fro m the KUlchin the re is a descriptio n of a dwelling six feet (1.83 m) high , wit h a maxi mum diam eter of 12- 13 fee t (3 .66- 3.9601). and designed to contain one o r more fa milies. The inte rio r is divided into 's ta lls ' open to the ce ntral space (Fig. 4) . These pro babl y mark perso nal areas of single

Figflre .J Tent o f the KU lchi n wi th 'stall s' probably marking perso nal areas .

indi viduals able to withdraw into isolation ( M organ 1965). With the Lapps th e habit was that at least the parents and the sma ll e r chi ldren sle pt within littl e te nts of canvas that in the night were hung fro m th e s lo ping inne r sides o f the dwelling (Vorren a nd Ma nke r 1976: 73).

According to E.T. Ha ll :

Sp;,lCC perception is no t o nly a ma tter of what ca n be perceived but what c(ln be screened out. People brought lip in diffc rc ni cultu res learn as childre n . without ever knowing Ihal they have done so. to screen oul onc Iype of in fo rrmHion while payi ng close .. m e ntio n to a nothe r . O nce Sc i . these pe rceptual patte rns appa rently remain quite stable throughout li fe . The Japanese. fo r CX<l l11 ph:. sc reen vislmlty in a variety o f ways but arc pe rfect ly l'ontent wi th pupe r wa ll s as acousti c sc ree ns. Spending a night al a Jap,1I1ese inn while ,I party is going u n nex t door is a new sensory experience for th e Weste rner ( I Y6lJ : 4-l-45) .

The character o f the 'i nvisible' borders unde r discussio n is such tha t they ca n fun ctio n as c ffecti ve 'f-ilt e rs' o f visual a nd auditory involve me nt. but the

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moment communicatio n is demanded a nd accepted , they can be ignored. Apparent ly, the openness and closed ness are expressed and relld by details in the attitudes and moveme nts of the inha bitants (Briggs 1970; McFeat 1974).

In the conte xt of sma ll dwellings consisting of one room with a si ngle norma ll y-used entrance - the type under discussio n here - another facto r in a ll anthropologically described placing patterns known to the author is tha t the individua ls a re placed so tha t communication and eye-con tact is possible between all o f the m. That is to say they are placed more or less in a circle, o r o ne or more segments o f a circle, facin g a commo n cen tre. T his may sou nd rathe r banal but , for an understand ing of the spatial , communicative and non-co mmunica tive structures under discussio n, it is important , and in the inte r­pret a tio n o f spatial o rganization o f prehistoric dwell­ings it may be an important fact to keep in mind .

T he quotation from Faegre (1979) cited above suggests that the re is no rmally a men 's and a women ', side in the kind o f dwellings unde r discus­sion. In a number of cases it would be more correct to speak of a gradua l sex ual polariza tion of the dwelling space with no fixed borders as is known. for instance , among the Lapps ( Riink 195 1; Vorre n and Manke r 1976).

There ex ist two main fo rms of wide ly distributed patte rns of polariza tion. In one the feminine e le ­me nt is con nected with the e ntra nce a rea , wh ile the masculine e le me nt is co nn ected with the rea r of the dwe lling. This pattern has bee n discussed in great detail by Ra nk and his pupil Paulso n . Appare ntly, with this patte rn the masculine- fe minin e polar­izatio n is very often coincide nt with a polariza tio n bctween sacred and profane . respectively . In a numbe r of cases , this patte rn is also connected with the ex iste nce of a ritua l doo r opposite the no rmally­used e ntrance ( Rank 1951 ; Paulson 1952).

With the othe r pattern. the sex ual po lariza tion is between the two sides o f the dwelling. as wit h the o ne-famil y hut s of the Mistassini , the Yamana Indians of Tierra de l Fuego and. probably . the Maglemose cu lture (Figs. I & 2: G usinde 1933). With this patte rn . it a lso see ms to be the rule that prestige increases wi th distance from the e ntra nce.

According to Pa ulson ( 1952) the first pattern of sexual polari za tio n is due to a rather we ll-developed patriarchy. whereas the second is found associat ed with a lesse r degree of such . As a partial explanation of why the place opposite the door is ge ne rall y connected with a maximum o f prestige. he stresses the psycho logical aspect s of the matter. stating:

Most of us choose a comfo rtable corne r place in the train and. I think , anyone o f us wou ld p refe r to sleep in a bed standing ncar the wa ll o f the bedroom rat he r than in its middle ( llJ52: 65) .

From the defe nsive point of view. a positio n op-

posite and facing the entrance will clearly be the optimum , and so impose a cert <1 in feeling of security on the person occupying it.

T hat the organization of social space within the type of dwellings under discussion va ries from culture to culture is probably due to culture-specific factors - for instance, as indi C~ll ed above, the man­wife relation c£l n be given different va lues in different cultures. and will therefore find different spati al expressions. Seen from an archaeo logica l point of view , the factor of importance is that the organizational patterns are normally regulated by a set o f general social-psychologica l factors. As a hypot hesis , a number o f these factors can be o utlined:

I . The spat ia l distance between the indi viduals will be congruent with their distance sociall y.

2. In a househo ld. the individuals will be placed so that co mmunication and eye-contact is possible between a ll of th em. This mea ns that they will be placed morc or less in a circle or on one or morc segments of a ci rcle, facing a common centre .

3. The place opposite the doo r has the grea test prestige va lue and as such is the most desirable .

4 . The greater the status of a person, the more his or her wishes with regard to spati al positi on are taken into account.

With simple screens, access ca n be obtained from different directions. Though a speci fic entrance zone as focal point of access is absent , the focal point o f prest ige genera ll y see ms to be the most cen tral point within the structures (Man 1883; G usinde 1933; Radcliffe-Brown 1964). With the Pitj andjara of Australia , the children are placed beside the mother , who again is pl aced beside the fa ther. With an increasing numbe r of childre n, the place of th e parents moves away from the centre of the structure which is constructed o nl y to provide cover for the numher of individllflls present within the family.

With many bushmen , the huts are used only for storage and as shelter when it rains. D ail y activities are ca rried out around a fireplace in front of the hut. Tho ugh at least some of these groups were observed to distinguish between a men's side and a women 's side of the fireplace, this co nve ntion was rather loose and did not no t prevent people from moving aro und the fire to avoid the smoke (Marshall 1959 ; Eliza­beth M. Thomas. pers. comm .).

Because the organization of social space of the kind discussed here to a large ex tent seems to be based on genera l socio-psycho logical factors, which must be assumed to have remained unchanged for a considerable spa n of time, there can be little doubt that such orga ni zational patterns were normal also with Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. From an archaeo­logica l viewpoint , therefore, the important question

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is how they may be obs~rved. In cases where actual remains of dwelling structures are not preserved , the crucial point will be whether it is possible to recognize the dwelling area and the positi on of the entrance in other ways.

In the study o f distributional patterns on pre­historic sites, a generally accept ed view is that physical bo rders (e.g. the walls of a dwellin g) will be reflected in th e distribution of the a rtifacts. At first sight this so unds reasonable, but one must be aware tha t many nomad ic cultures li vi ng in dwellings o f light construction (tents, bark huts, etc.) often do not regard the walls of their dwellings as borders o f such consistency as do the archaeologists the wa lls of prehistoric dwellings. In fact , it is report ed in the ethnographic literature that members of some nom­ad ic cultures , when the weath er is nice , roll lip the sides of thei r tents or remove parts of the covering material from th eir huts (e.g. Mo rice 19 10; Birke t­Smith 1957 ; Rogers 1967; Faegre 1979). Thus , it is to be expected that the distribution or some artiracts ( in idea l instan ces , specifi c types) will refl ect the ex ist­ence of the walls of the dwellings , whereas that of o ther artifacts will not. Such a phenomenon may be o bserva ble in the dwellings of the Maglemose culture (Gr0n IgS7a).

Another point tha t has been the object of some discussion is whether an area where artifacts -including waste from working processes - are conce ntrated can be regarded as the dwelling area. From an anthropological point of view , this is possible (e .g. Binford 1983). Floors made up of branches of the kind known from many primitive cu ltures , as well as the huts of the Maglemose culture, ca n 'absorb' considerable amounts of litter (Rogers 1967; Anderse n, J0rgensen and Richter 1982). With regard to flint-working inside the dwel­lings , the crucial problem seems to be the flint pieces a few millimetres and less in size that spread like dust and ca use much irritation. Because of this I am inclined to believe tha t flint-kn apping, which must have been carried on inside the dwellings of the Maglemose culture , mllst have been executed just before the sites were left, the people carrying with them an amount of prepared raw material such as se lected blades , microblades, and/or finished tools for the new site.

Concentrations of material on prehistoric sites may also represent outdoor activit ies or dumps. The individuals inside a dwelling are pl aced sole ly in accordance with a traditional conception of the dwelling space , whereas individuals outsiqe the dwellings will no rmall y choose to place themse lves in some relation to the natural features there , such as trees (for shadow) and stones (for seats). It must therefore be expected th at outdoor activities will not show one pattern repeatedly on a number o f sites.

The consta nt ro tatio n o f people ro und o utdoor fires to avoid the smo ke must a lso be expected to give act ivities carried o ut in this si tuat io n a re la tively blurred spa ti a l configuration compared to indoor activi ties.

With rega rd to dumps. o ne should no rma lly expect them to con tain a rath er random distribution o f the differe nt types o f arti facts and litter. No repeated structuring should be expected from site to site. eve rthe less. deposition o f litte r in some ' a nth ropologica l cases is carried o ut in a ritual and spatially structured way (Adrian Tanner , pers . co mm .). One must ex pect this to cause so me difficult cases in spatial an alys is.

For the ana lysis of spatial distribution patte rns . a certain inte nsity of it ems is necessary. T he si tes o f th e Magle mose culture are ofte n ideal for carrying o ut Stich ana lysis , the material representing o ne sma ll typologica ll y homogeneous site no rmally con­taining betwee n 10,000 and 40.000 pieces of Il int. M oreover. the numbers o f tools are normall y ade­q uate for the purpose. In the co ntext o f the la te Pa laeolithic Bromme cu lture and the Hamburgian culture, repea ted patterns in the Hint distributions a re discernible but . as th e inte nsity of tools is o ft e n very low, the significance of the ir distributional patterns is low. Lind thus the sites are less sui ted to detailed ana lys is.

The size o f the dwe llings o f nomadic people seems to be de te rmined. a mo ngst o the r th ings . by a balancin g o f the e ffo rt they (lrc willing to in vest in co nstructi on (lnd/o r transporta tio n of a dwelling. the ma te rials o btainable. a nd the de mand for dwe lling a rea of a size th <J t will no t cause unn ecessary co nflicts between Ihe me mbe rs of the indi vidua l ho useho lds. As the spatial structures no rma lly con­ta in some cu lture-speci fic c le me nts. it seems unlikely that there would be a n exac t general re lation be tween the number o f inhabitants and the size o f a dwe lling.

Whe re socia l a nth ropology is concerned mainl y with studies of cultures th rough re lative ly restricted inte rva ls o f time. the me thod prese nted in this pape r shou ld ma ke it possible in so me cases to foll ow the deve lopme nt of group structure over periods o f considerable lengt h. and thus to ga in an insight into the ro le o f socia l structu re as a dynamic <1dapti ve mechanism . It is the prese nt a uthor's hope tha t in this way the social aspects o f the cha nge from Mesolithic to Neolithic in southe rn Scandinavia may be elucidat ed.

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105

U.I.S.P.P. Mesolithic Commission

THE

MESOLITHIC IN EUROPE

PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM EDINBURGH 1985

Edited by

eli V e Bonsall Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh

JOHN DONALD PUBLISHERS LTD EDINBURGH