ABSTRACT
Thomas's (1 99 1 a) Rethinking the Neolithic was published in 199 1 and was among a number of studies that questioned the conventional interpretation of that period (Hodder 1990; Barrett 1994; Whittle 1996a). On one level it was an attempt to investigate some of the assumptions on which Neolithic archaeology had been based. Thus different chapters provided novel interpretations of artefacts and their deposition, mortuary rites, monuments and even the Neolithic economy. On a more abstract level, however, Thomas argued that the distinguishing feature of the Neolithic was a new understanding of the world: 'The idea of a way of life which separates humanity from nature may have been more important than the material reality. The appropriation of nature may have been conceptual as much as it was physical' (1991a: 181). Although this particular account was concerned with the archaeology of the British Isles, in an earlier paper (Thomas 1988a) he had taken the same approach to the prehistory of southern Scandinavia.
