It Took a Childe to Raze the Village

Over half a century ago, V. Gordon Childe challenged typological approaches to the definition and analysis of villages. Nevertheless, the village and variations of this concept continue on as organizational categories with neo-evolutionary connotations. This history in many respects has hindered as well as helped our understanding of how and why clusters of humans come to live together. Collectively, the contributions to this volume systematically address the concerns raised by Childe as well as more recent scholars as to the variation encompassed by the village construct, as well as why this is an important unit of analysis. In addition, several additional important themes are raised, all of which reflect current theoretical trends in the discipline: what precipitates village coalescence? What does the village mean experientially and to the landscape? And, what are the consequences of village life and identity?