ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between technology, economy and social organization during the Chalcolithic, beginning with a brief review of the theoretical work on these matters. It also explores Chalcolithic social organization, focusing specifically on the organization of production, craft specialization and the luxury goods exchange, considering the impact they had both independently and collectively on the transformation of Chalcolithic society. The archaeological record from the late fifth-fourth millennium BC demonstrates that both the local advent of copper production and the emergence of social complexity in the southern Levant occurred around roughly the same time. The role of pastoralism in the economies of early Near Eastern societies has received a great deal of attention, it is seldom conceived of as a catalyst for sociopolitical developments. It has even been suggested that there is a processual bias against the development of social stratification built into pastoral societies.
