Conclusion

Numerous studies have engaged with the intricacies of social life, its relations, dependencies, and obligations. Detailed studies of social topics and themes, as well as particular artefacts, groups of data, contexts and sites are crucial, such as, for example, the material culture and experience of the home. However, the wealth and diversity of data now available, as well as the richness of existing scholarship, also open up possibilities for wide-ranging synthesizing and interpretive social histories that would integrate different types of evidence across periods. Such work could address questions of development and change over time and would undoubtedly reveal new areas of research.

FURTHER READING

One of the best treatments of core groups of evidence for social structure and organization for all periods is Kemp 2006. The most comprehensive study of kinship terminology remains Franke 1983; summary in English: 2001; see Campagno 2009 for subsequent approaches. For the family and household, see Whale 1989. Much ground-breaking work on social institutions has centered on developments in the third millennium, e. g. Baer 1960; Baines and Yoffee 1998; Lehner 2000; Moreno Garcia 2001; O’Connor 1974; 2000. Important exceptions in terms of time period include Richards 2000; 2005; Seidlmayer 2001a; 2007. Models of rural village life and landscape have been developed by Moreno Garcia 1999; 2001; Eyre 1999; 2004. On non-elites more generally see Baines in press. A study of groups excluded from normal social interaction is Fischer-Elfert 2005. Various aspects of social life have been treated in detail by Eyre 1984; 1992; 1998; 2000; 2007, while approaches to identity and personhood have been examined by Meskell 1999. Janssen and Janssen 2007 offers a rich range of evidence for phases of life. Many popular books on ‘‘daily life’’ are not properly grounded in evidence or source-critical. Two accessible studies which are theoretically informed and draw comprehensively on primary data are Meskell 2002; Szpakowska 2008. Collections of relevant primary textual sources in translation include: Lichtheim 1988; Wente 1990; Parkinson 1991; 1997;

McDowell 1999; Strudwick 2005. Excavation reports which give a sense of the material culture of settlements include Czerny 1999; Giddy 1999. Exhibition and museum catalogues, often with valuable essays, are also excellent sources for social implications of material culture, e. g. Brovarski et al. (eds.) 1982; Donadoni Roveri (ed.) 1987; Capel and Markoe (eds.) 1996; Andreu (ed.) 2002.