Since both of these aspects are variable, the relevance of a wild:domestic distinction is context-dependent. Domesticates constitute sentient property. It is concluded that the wild:domestic distinction has an analytical validity if couched in terms of (a) incorporation of live animals into human property relationships, and (b) the possibility of direct relationships between individual people and animals. The thesis starts with a review of the archaeology and chronology of the Vinča period, and a theoretical consideration of human-animal relations, including problematization of the central concept of domestication. At the same time, by documenting the continuing importance of wild animals throughout the Neolithic in the central Balkan region I hope to contribute to the recognition that the period cannot be characterized purely in terms of ‘the domestic’. I use faunal data from two sites studied at first hand, coupled with published reports, to address the possible roles of animals within these changes. Various authors have developed models of social change during the Vinča period, revolving round sedentism, intensification of production and the emergence of the household rather than the community as the primary unit of social organization. There are two central themes: (a) the continuing role of wild animals in the Neolithic and the relationship of this to the place of domesticates and (b) the role of animals within the political economy and their implication in processes of social change.
This thesis is concerned with the role of animals within Neolithic society, specifically in the later Neolithic/Copper Age Vinča culture of the central Balkans.
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