| This paper discusses archaeological evidence to argue that Minoan society was largely – but not solely – organised into corporate groups, often called ‘houses’ in the Levi-Straussian sense. These houses, it is proposed, not only formed the foundation of personal and social identity, but also the central units of political authority, with impact on land tenure, production, distribution, trade and ritual competition. Houses claimed their own building rights, pasture zones, burying grounds, as well as some symbolic elements forming a variety of imagined communities. It is examined to which extent evidence exists on Crete to suggest the possible existence of multilocal house groups, dispersed over a series of even nonadjacent communities, and thus contributing to a social and symbolic landscape that exists within and through the identifiable settlement network. The Mycenaean inspired leadership at Knossos tried to replace this fractious house-based governance with a unified political organization but eventually failed. The clan system survived and was revitalized during the historical period (startos). |
