In the first part, we saw why the spirits were invented and the functions assigned to them.
The second part takes place in the Middle East during the Neolithic era. It describes the passage from nomadic to sedentary life, the introduction of agriculture, our first steps in architecture, and animal domestication that will lead to the discovery of the relationship between sex and procreation.
Most of the documentation used here comes from archaeological research.
Prolonging the traditional distribution of tasks that were in force during the preceding period, most of the innovations that mark the new era are distributed along the gender line, sedentarization and agriculture resting within the competence of women while animal domestication being incumbent on men. The abundance of game in the region will have for consequence that men will continue to hunt to provide the community with meat. This way, they will keep nomadic traditions a long time alive. As a result, the full introduction of animal domestication in the economy of these communities will be retarded.
Among the meager vestiges that these populations have left behind, their architectural expression and the way they disposed of their dead will help us discover a few features of their social organization. Our first architectural steps show how these populations translated into space the norms and values inherited from the previous era, while the lack of uniformity in their funeral practices indicates the relevant role that spirits still play.
A very stable period of our prehistory, the Neolithic gives rise to a new lifestyle while preserving most of the values inherited from the preceding era. However, the profound changes that mark its end will erase most if not all of these ancestral traditions and the social structures they brought with them.
The Neolithic Transition is divided into six chapters:
1. The Neolithic Revolution
2. Sedentarization and Demography
3. Habitat and Community
4. Funerary Rituals
5. Animal Domestication
6. The Neolithic, a Bridge between Two Worlds