Editing Çatalhöyük (section)

== Economy ==
Çatalhöyük has strong evidence of an [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] society, as no houses with distinctive features (belonging to [[Monarch|royalty]] or [[priest|religious hierarchy]] for example) have been found so far. The most recent investigations also reveal little [[social stratification|social distinction]] based on gender, with men and women receiving equivalent nutrition and seeming to have equal social status, as typically found in [[Paleolithic]] cultures.<ref name="Stavrianos">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society|title=A Global History from Prehistory to the Present|author=Leften Stavros Stavrianos|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=1991|isbn=978-0-13-357005-2|location=New Jersey, USA}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society Pages 9–13]</ref><ref name="Gutrie">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC|title=The Nature of Paleolithic art|author=R Dale Gutrie|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-226-31126-5|location=Chicago}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC Page 420-422]</ref> Children observed domestic areas. They learned how to perform rituals and how to build or repair houses by watching the adults make statues, beads, and other objects.<ref name="Maynes" />
Çatalhöyük's spatial layout may be due to the close kin relations exhibited amongst the people. It can be seen, in the layout, that the people were "divided into two groups who lived on opposite sides of the town, separated by a gully." Furthermore, because no nearby towns were found from which marriage partners could be drawn, "this spatial separation must have marked two intermarrying kinship groups." This would help explain how a settlement so early on would become so large.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Family: A World History|last1=Maynes|first1=Mary Jo|last2=Waltner|first2=Ann|date=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-530476-3|location=New York City|page=8}}</ref>
[[File:Çatalhöyük_kazı_alanı_çatısı.JPG|thumb|Protective roof of the archeological site]]
In the upper levels of the site, it becomes apparent that the people of Çatalhöyük were honing skills in agriculture and the domestication of animals. Female figurines have been found within bins used for storage of cereals, such as wheat and [[barley]], and the figurines are presumed to be of a deity protecting the grain. [[Peas]] were also grown, and [[almonds]], [[pistachio]]s, and fruit were harvested from trees in the surrounding hills. [[domestic sheep|Sheep]] were domesticated and evidence suggests the beginning of cattle [[domestication]] as well. However, [[hunting]] continued to be a major source of food for the community. [[Pottery]] and [[obsidian]] tools appear to have been major industries; obsidian tools were probably both used and also traded for items such as [[Mediterranean]] sea shells and [[flint]] from [[Syria]]. Noting the lack of hierarchy and [[economic inequality]], historian and anti-capitalist author [[Murray Bookchin]] has argued that Çatalhöyük was an early example of [[anarcho-communism]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Rise of Urbanisation and Decline of Citizenship|last=Bookchin|first=Murray|pages=18–22}}</ref>

Conversely, a 2014 paper argues that the picture of Çatalhöyük is more complex and that while there seemed to have been an egalitarian distribution of cooking tools and some stone tools, unbroken [[quern-stone]]s and storage units were more unevenly distributed. Private property existed but shared tools also existed. It was also suggested that Çatalhöyük was becoming less egalitarian, with greater inter-generational wealth transmission.<ref>Wright, Katherine I. Karen. "Domestication and inequality? Households, corporate groups and food processing tools at Neolithic Çatalhöyük." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 33 (2014): 1–33.</ref>