Enchainment Commodification and Gender in the Balkan Copper Age

Two strategies for social relations are defined for the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of south-eastem Europe: enchainment and commodification. Enchained relations are based upon inalienable objects exchanged between relations, while barter relations are concerned with the re-contextualisation of exotic objects into local communities. The metaphor of fragmented artefacts is explored in relation to enchained relations, while those complete objects subject to formal deposition are interpreted as symbolising integral social relations. Fragmentation analysis conducted for a variety of materials indicates the varying potential of fired clay and metals (copper and gold) for relations based on enchainment.The social practices surrounding fragmentation and structured/formal deposition are explored in two socia-spatial contexts - the domestic arena and the mortuary arena. Fragmentation of figurines is analysed at the late Copper Age tell of Goljamo Delcevo, in north-eastem Bulgaria. By contrast, three north-eastem Bulgarian Copper Age cemeteries are analysed to examine the extent to which material culture is used to express gendered social competition in the mortuary domain. It is proposed that the tension between enchained relations and commodification is one of the key factors in the generation of dynamic hange in the Balkan Copper Age, at the time of the Varna cemetery.