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Neolithic communism
From Cayönü to Catalhöyük
By Bernhard Brosius
Reviewed by
Sascha Stanicic
LATE LAST year a new English-language website was
launched, based on an already established German language site
www.urkommunismus.de (ancient communism), devoted to the
archaeological material that continues to emerge on the earliest forms
of human society. The main article, From Cayönü to Catalhöyük, by
Bernhard Brosius, examines the archaeological findings of a form of
society which existed for 3,000 years (around 7,000 to 4,000 BCE) in
Anatolia and the Balkans, which without exaggeration can be called
neolithic (new stone age) communism. It is fascinating reading for
socialists.
Unique archaeological findings make it possible to
reconstruct the way of life in these societies in the neolithic period
which stood at the beginning of the transition from nomadic hunter and
gatherer cultures to sedentary societies which developed food
production. Brosius explains how, in Cayönü in eastern Anatolia, through
the discovery of different settlement layers, the technological progress
can be understood: from living on the basis of hunting and gathering,
via the first seeds, to the development of livestock breeding. The
findings lead to the conclusion that the society which existed in Cayönü
between 8,800 and 7,300 BCE was a hierarchical and patriarchical class
society the oldest known class society!
But different to other parts of the world, Cayönü
saw an uprising, a social revolution against the exploitative structure
of society. Out of this revolution an egalitarian form of society grew
which spread from Anatolia to the Balkans and lasted for 3,000 years.
Taking the 10,000-strong city of Catalhöyük as an example, Brosius
explains in detail how the archaeological findings show that there were
no classes, no exploitation, no war, and no discrimination against
women.
The text explains how conclusions can be drawn for
the structure of a given society, the way of living and working, and the
relationship between the sexes, from the architecture, grave
furnishings, consumer goods equipment, and the examination of skeletons.
The scientists who continue to study Catalhöyük are
not socialists but have come to the conclusion that an egalitarian
society or a society with differences in ranks existed. The
archaeologist, Naomi Hamilton, explains: "Differences do not necessarily
mean structural inequality. Respect for age, hard-earned respect, social
influence on the basis of experience and knowledge, do not contradict an
egalitarian ethic". The discussion about the characterisation, a
society with different ranks, rather seems to come from a lack of
imagination that thousands of years ago there was a society that in
terms of quality of life had something that was ahead of all following
class societies. British archaeologist, James Mellaart, who discovered
the first stone age settlement layers in Anatolia in 1958, comments: "It
is hard to avoid the conclusion that the people of Catal Hüyük did not
see things in our way; they concentrated on
the continuity of life
and
the way of achieving it. It seems that they understood
that life must
go on, a fundamental truth which we tend to miss".
Part of the evidence for the absence of social
differences is the uniform architecture in Catalhöyük. There were no
palaces or temples, no big and pompous buildings or, on the other side,
miserable housing. On the contrary, we see in Catalhöyük a peculiar
architecture, in which all houses were basically designed in the same
way. The people lived, cooked, worked, painted and buried their dead in
the houses. The only difference between the houses suggests that this
society did not know formal equality but social equality. The area of a
house could be adjusted to the size of a family, with the result that
every adult or two children had ten to twelve square metres at their
disposal. If a family grew, the space of the house grew as well. Brosius
concludes: "The living houses of Catalhöyük show that the needs of the
people were the socially binding basis of production".
The goods which have been found in all graves in
Catalhöyük are all of such a fundamentally similar character that the
conclusion is that not only were there no rich and poor but also no
social differences between men and women. The fact that women also had
tools as grave goods (and men had jewellery) leads to the conclusion
that, as Brosius says, "there was a natural appreciation of women in the
production of goods which leads to the assumption that the contradiction
between production and reproduction did not exist in this society".
The examinations of the skeletons showed that there
were no big differences between the men and women of Catalhöyük in
nutrition, body size, lifestyle and other activities. There are no signs
of a gender-based division of labour. The burial of men and women was
similar. Not only was there no discrimination against one gender, it can
be assumed that people were perceived as human beings and not defined as
man or woman.
The excavations so far have not brought out any
skeleton showing signs of violence by one person against another. There
are no signs of the looting of graves, and no depictions of violence or
aggression in their paintings. There are also no signs of ritual,
religious sacrifice of human beings or animals. And there are no signs
of war and this for a period of 1,500 years in Anatolia and 2,500
years in the Balkans! Under capitalism, not a single day goes by without
violence, murder and war. Instead of all this, Catalhöyük knew
solidarity. There are signs that there was intensive care for ill and
injured people, and there are even buildings which have been interpreted
by the scientists as being hospitals.
Of course, Catalhöyük was poor in comparison to
later societies and had a low level of technological development. But
the social relations led to a higher quality of life than that which
existed in societies with a higher technological development. Brosius,
for example, gives the comparison with a city in the bronze age (from
the third to the first millennium BCE) where the infant mortality was
30% higher than in Catalhöyük. In fact, generally, the average life
expectancy of 32 years in Catalhöyük was only reached around 1750!
Even more important, the people in neolithic
Catalhöyük were able to reduce their average working hours to less than
half of their productive time. This they could then use for the
production of consumer goods, painting, music and for celebrations.
Life was enjoyed in Catalhöyük and there were many celebrations and
dances which again surely strengthened the social cohesion of this
society.
So, if today someone says that human beings are too
bad for socialism the reply can be: look at Catalhöyük! The egalitarian
form of society which lasted for more than 3,000 years in Anatolia and
the Balkans shows that it does not lie in the nature of human beings to
be greedy, to kill and oppress. This is a confirmation of the Marxist
thesis that conditions determine conciousness. Capitalist conditions
create the so-called elbow mentality (hard competition), but also the
realisation that the majority of people suffer under these conditions
and that only collective resistance can change the conditions of life.
A similar conclusion must have been drawn by the
neolithic revolutionaries before they wiped away the then existing class
society 10,000 years ago and created their land of equality. With the
technological potential of the 21st century, instead of the technology
of the new stone age, a new Catalhöyük will give human beings the
possibility to be human beings at last.
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