{"id":10797,"date":"2026-01-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10797"},"modified":"2025-12-26T20:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:46:30","slug":"does-the-neolithic-tell-us-about-a-change-in-material-arrangements-or-a-developing-bauplan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10797","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Melinda A. Zeder&#8217;s Article (2025) &#8220;Unpacking the Neolithic&#8221; (Part 1 of 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>0001 If I may present my conclusion at the beginning, &#8220;I suggest the following motto: First the bauplan, then the twist.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0002 The full title of the essay under examination is &#8220;Unpacking the Neolithic: Assessing the Relevance of the Neolithic Construct in Light of Recent Research&#8221;.&nbsp;&nbsp;The article appears in the Journal of World Prehistory (2025) in volume 38:11, pages 1-58 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10963-025-09198-0).&nbsp;&nbsp;The author is affiliated with the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0003 The author&#8217;s argument follows the Greek tradition of (A) setting out prior propositions, (B) adding further information and assessments and (C) proposing one&#8217;s own solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior propositions (A) are covered in the section titled, &#8220;The Origin of the Term &#8216;Neolithic'&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further information (B) includes sections on neolithic emergences in southwest Asia and other regions, including China, Japan, eastern north America, Mesoamerica and the northwest America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The author&#8217;s proposal (C) appears in a section titled, &#8220;Repackaging the Neolithic&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0004 I examine each movement in the sequence A, C then B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0005 In regards to the historical origin of the term, &#8220;neolithic&#8221; (A), the word appears in the 1850s in the context of prehistoric lithic technology.&nbsp;&nbsp;A distinction between old &#8220;paleolithic&#8221; and new &#8220;neolithic&#8221; tools reflects a fairly recent change in the human condition.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Paleolithic extends very far back into the evolution of the&nbsp;<em>Homo<\/em>&nbsp;genus.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Neolithic is fairly new and applies only to&nbsp;<em>Homo sapiens<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;By &#8220;new&#8221;, I mean, say,&nbsp;<em>starting less that 20,000 years ago<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0006 As it turns out, stone tools and fossilized bones are the most recoverable items from the distant past.&nbsp;&nbsp;So,&nbsp;<em>the idea that our kind evolves<\/em>&nbsp;will of course rely of&nbsp;<em>this type of data<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;The implications are significant.&nbsp;&nbsp;If lithic technologies are like matter, then the archaeologist may speculate on forms of prehistorical human (or &#8220;hominid&#8221; or &#8220;hominin&#8221;) conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0007 For example,&nbsp;<em>the earliest paleolithic stone tools<\/em>&nbsp;are labeled &#8220;Oldowan&#8221;. These tools can be made on the fly.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;If I strike one rock with another, I can fracture off a shard and expose a sharp edge.&nbsp;&nbsp;Of course, one must choose the right rocks for this trick.&nbsp;&nbsp;Plus, technique is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Later stone tools<\/em>&nbsp;are labeled &#8220;Acheulean&#8221;.&nbsp;&nbsp;These stone tools are made ahead of time, by the same technique of hammering off shards to reveal an intended form that&#8230; somehow&#8230; is intrinsic to the original rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0008 So, what am I suggesting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is&nbsp;<em>the actuality of matter and form<\/em>&nbsp;intrinsic to rocks, and ancestral hominins learn to tamper with one real element (matter) in order to sculpt the other real element (form)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0009 I am suggesting more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aristotle&#8217;s hylomorphe (hylo = matter, morphe = form) is an exemplar of Peirce&#8217;s category of secondness.&nbsp;&nbsp;Secondness consists of (at least) two contiguous real elements.&nbsp;&nbsp;For paleolithic hominins, a rock (matter) could be sculpted into a stone tool (form).&nbsp;&nbsp;From the point of view of the archaeologist, the hylomorphic structure still applies.&nbsp;&nbsp;The question is, &#8220;How?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Paleolithic stone-tool technology<\/em>&nbsp;&#8220;sculpts&#8221;&nbsp;<em>prehistorical human conditions<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0010 Of course, the word, &#8220;sculpts&#8221;, serves as an aesthetic metaphor for&nbsp;<em>the contiguity between paleolithic technology as matter and hominin conditions as form<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide01-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide01-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10798\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide01-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide01-2-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0011 The challenge for nineteenth-century anthropology is clear.&nbsp;&nbsp;Propose a better, more scientific, or at least, less metaphysical, label for the contiguity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With only geological strata, stone tools and fossilized bones as evidence, proposals were necessarily speculative.&nbsp;&nbsp;But, archaeologists continued digging, and by the 1850s could make the distinction between paleolithic and neolithic.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also, they figured out a reason for why the advance from Oldowan to Acheulean stone tools &#8220;sculpted&#8221; more advanced hominin conditions.&nbsp;&nbsp;Man was making himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0012 What do these evidential and rational developments suggest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a Peircean, secondness is the dyadic realm of actuality.\u00a0\u00a0Secondness is only one of Peirce&#8217;s three categories.\u00a0\u00a0The other two are thirdness (the triadic realm of normal contexts, judgments, signs, mediations and so forth) and firstness (the monadic realm of possibility).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Each of these categories<\/em>&nbsp;manifests&nbsp;<em>its own logic<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also, each higher numbered category prescinds from the adjacent lower category.&nbsp;&nbsp;Thirdness prescinds from secondness.&nbsp;&nbsp;Secondness prescinds from firstness.&nbsp;&nbsp;Prescission allows the articulation of the category-based nested form, as described in Razie Mah&#8217; e-book,&nbsp;<em>A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0013 Thirdness bring secondness into relation with firstness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A triadic normal context<sub>3<\/sub>&nbsp;brings a dyadic actuality<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;into relation with the possibility of &#8216;something&#8217;<sub>1<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0014 Now I can slide the above dyad into the slot for actuality<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;for the category-based nested form intimated by the title of V. Gordon Childe&#8217;s 1936 book,&nbsp;<em>Man Makes Himself<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide02-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide02-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10799\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide02-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide02-2-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0015 The slide clarifies the contiguity, paleolithic technology constellates a substance, which I label, &#8220;technique&#8221;, that manifests&nbsp;<em>an essence for the conditions of evolving hominins<\/em>&nbsp;(that is, a substantiated form).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consequently,&nbsp;<em>the appearance of a new stone tool technology<\/em>&nbsp;indicates a change in techniques as well as a change in&nbsp;<em>the essence of the prehistoric human condition<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0016 According to Childe (1892-1957), the &#8220;neolithic&#8221; label encompassed more than a change in lithic technology.&nbsp;&nbsp;The prehistoric human condition gets entangled with all sorts of other matters, including sedentary communities, economies of delayed returns, various modes of storage and so forth.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>A long list of material arrangements<\/em>&nbsp;gets entangled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0017 As it turns out, once matter substantiates form, then form can entangle other matter, which is a confounding.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here, &#8220;confounding&#8221; is a technical term, precisely labeling one form originating from one matter and entangling another matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Historically,&nbsp;<em>a confounding<\/em>&nbsp;is&nbsp;<em>an idea that belongs to Aristotle&#8217;s tradition<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is stumbled upon long after Aristotle&#8217;s campus went out of business.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is the brainchild of the Byzantine and Slavic civilizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0018 Here is a picture of Childe&#8217;s confounding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide03-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide03-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide03-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide03-2-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0019 The upper three lines presents the neolithic thing.&nbsp;&nbsp;Neolithic stone-tool technology [substantiates] the prehistoric human condition.&nbsp;&nbsp;The nature of the [substance] is labeled, &#8220;technique&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lower two lines presents the entangled matter.&nbsp;&nbsp;The [entanglement] is difficult to label, because its nature is.. well&#8230; a long list of material arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0020 A list of material arrangements appears in Table 1 of the article.&nbsp;&nbsp;Even the social components of social mechanism, magico-religious sanctions and trade can be shoved under the rug labeled, &#8220;material arrangements&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0021 As such, the &#8220;neolithic&#8221; may serve as an adjective to a noun, &#8220;revolution&#8221;, that appeals to academics sympathetic to Marxist formulations.&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes, they are the ones who only promote academics with similar sympathies.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also, Childe was&#8230; um&#8230; a sympathizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question is not about whether prehistoric folk are &#8220;communist&#8221; or &#8220;fascist&#8221;, even though these labels may apply to this or that anthropologist of the 1930s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question is whether the Marxist formula applies to prehistoric folk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0022 The answer becomes obvious, when Childe&#8217;s confounding resolves into the following hylomorphic structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide04-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide04-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10801\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide04-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Slide04-2-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0023 The above figure depicts a Marxist version of Aristotle&#8217;s hylomorphe, {matter [substantiates] form}.&nbsp;&nbsp;Childe&#8217;s hylomorphe lasts for nine decades (that is, until the present day at the start of 2026).&nbsp;&nbsp;Man makes himself through a standard Marxist formulation.&nbsp;&nbsp;Soon, Soviet era archaeologists adopt the stance that&nbsp;<em>the appearance of pottery<\/em>&nbsp;is&nbsp;<em>a hallmark of neolithic emergence<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Pottery<\/em>&nbsp;is&nbsp;<em>a material arrangement<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>The emergence of the neolithic<\/em>&nbsp;is&nbsp;<em>a human condition<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>0001 If I may present my conclusion at the beginning, &#8220;I suggest the following motto: First the bauplan, then the twist.&#8221; 0002 The full title of the essay under examination is &#8220;Unpacking the Neolithic: Assessing the Relevance of the Neolithic Construct in Light of Recent Research&#8221;.&nbsp;&nbsp;The article appears in the Journal of World Prehistory (2025) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[418,210,142,592],"tags":[201,203,62,39,97,589,43,459,608,590,42,29,119,245,55,188,468,642,560,641,111,615,189,286,44,250,585,126],"class_list":["post-10797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-review","category-empirio-schematics","category-first-singularity","category-semiotics-and-history","tag-ancient-near-east","tag-archaeology","tag-aristotle","tag-category-based-nested-form","tag-civilization","tag-confounding","tag-creation","tag-deception","tag-empirio-schematic","tag-entanglement","tag-evolution","tag-first-singularity","tag-human-evolution","tag-hylomorphe","tag-interscope","tag-judgment","tag-lebenswelt","tag-lotman","tag-marx","tag-neolithic","tag-original-sin","tag-paleolithic","tag-positivism","tag-postmodernism","tag-science","tag-speech-alone-talk","tag-tartu-moscow-school-of-semiotics","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Looking at Melinda A. 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