“Houses” in the Wansan Society, Neolithic Taiwan

In this paper, I utilized the house society concept to not only interpret how Neolithic Wansan people in Taiwan might have organized themselves, but also to understand the differences among the inhabitants of the houses. I approach this by analyzing the distribution of archaeological features and artifacts (i.e. postholes, burials, ceramic and lithic artifacts). The results of this analysis demonstrate that the residential houses in the Wansan Society were not only places where the people lived and interacted with one another, but they were also places where the living intertwined with the dead through situating the deceased members around the residential houses. Furthermore, the correlation between the presence of possible ancestor symbols and the variations of artifacts among houses suggests that the social differentiation of the Wansan Society was likely related to the people's ability to claim their association with the ancestors.