This article considers the role of anthropomorphic imagery in the constitution of subjects in Neolithic Thessaly, Greece. To accomplish that, material culture is seen as discourse, i.e. an articulating practice, which through its reiteration empowers certain positions rather than others. The objective of the study is to identify some aspects of the forms that specific anthropomorphic figures encourage or oblige those positions to take. These aspects pertain mainly to the human body. One conclusion is that there is a shift from an emphasis on the image of movement to an emphasis on the static image of the body and a concomitant interest in the head.

There were differences in the representation of humans and animals between the regions of Thessaly and the central Balkans during the earlier Neolithic. These differences imply the constitution of distinct worlds. Representation is anthropocentric in Thessaly and it focuses on particular actions of the human body. In the central Balkans, there is more animal imagery, although here too humans predominate. The lack of specific traits suggests an ontological principle of generic identity.

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The article considers the ways in which material culture and especially architecture is used in the negotiation of social relationships in Neolithic settlements in Thessaly, Greece. Thus it reconstructs the possibilities past agents had to form an identity in relation to houses and subsequently the consequences of two different habitation strategies, i.e. rebuilding on the same spot or relocation to another area, in relation to the conceptualization of time and the past. It is suggested that the different entanglement of memories with the material culture played an important role in the negotiation of relationships, by allowing agents to use the past as cultural capital and, even more, in the late Neolithic, to appropriate its reference points spatially and thus lay preferential claims over it.

The article considers the ways in which material culture and especially architecture is used in the negotiation of social relationships in Neolithic settlements in Thessaly, Greece. Thus it reconstructs the possibilities past agents had to form an identity in relation to houses and subsequently the consequences of two different habitation strategies, i.e. rebuilding on the same spot or relocation to another area, in relation to the conceptualization of time and the past. It is suggested that the different entanglement of memories with the material culture played an important role in the negotiation of relationships, by allowing agents to use the past as cultural capital and, even more, in the late Neolithic, to appropriate its reference points spatially and thus lay preferential claims over it.