ABSTRACT
The rise of sanctuary institutions that served regions, rather than simply local communities, represents a new threshold in the evolution of religion and society. From a social evolutionary perspective, this phenomenon can be linked cross-culturally to increasing social complexity and the emergence of chiefdom or rank societies. In the southern Levant, the surfacing of the first pan-regional ritual centers during the Chalcolithic period was tied to a web of new social processes that began to take shape during the late fifth–early fourth millennia bc. Some of these formative processes that began to crystallize at this time include the 'secondary products revolution' (Levy 1983, 1992; Sherratt 1981, 1997), the 'fiber revolution' (McCorriston 1997), the beginnings of metallurgy in the Levant (Golden 2005; Levy 1998; Shalev 1994; Shugar 2003), the first 'population explosion' in this part of the Middle East and other changes. Of the three of these new religio-social institutions that have been identified and excavated to date (Tuleilat Ghassul, En Gedi and Gilat), only Gilat has produced extensive assemblages of cult paraphernalia that can be used to examine questions related to late prehistoric ritual practice, ideology and belief underlying cult and ritual practices, and, ultimately, the role of ritual and religion in Chalcolithic Society. The rituals that were carried out at pan-regional sanctuaries such as Gilat provided the 'social glue' which helped integrate regional polities. To understand this process at Gilat, we have adopted the Durk-heimian (Durkheim 1933, 1995 [orig. 1912]) view of religion as powerfully strengthening a society's social structure as well as serving as a mechanism for controlling change based on the sacred authority of the social group's values and rules. In this way, regional religions or regional ritual (cult) organizations emerged out of the need to promote social solidarity. But this does not answer the specific question as to why Gilat emerged as the only Chalcolithic ritual center in the northern Negev desert when there were hundreds of contemporary 'secular' settlements in the region. Or why there was only one regional ritual center in the northern Negev and not the others? What was the nature of the various ritual acts and cults that focused on Gilat? And how was Gilat drawn into being a major player in promoting regional integration? This chapter will summarize many of the research conclusions presented earlier in this book by relying on the functionalist approach to the study of religion and society discussed earlier (Chapter 1, this volume).
