ABSTRACT
This chapter covers an exceptionally long and complex period. It starts with the incipient social and economic processes that began during the pre-Neolithic periods some 20,000 years ago and eventually lead to the transition to agriculture and sedentary lifeways some 8,500 years ago, and ends some 4,000 years ago, when state-level societies began to emerge in different regions of China. The Chinese Neolithic, so defined, includes a vast number of societies, each evolving in its unique local environment and developing unique cultural, economic and social forms. The Chapter addresses issues that are relevant to our understanding of these human societies and the processes of change they underwent. Those issues include socio-economic processes that occurred during the Pre-Neolithic period; the transition to sedentary village life and its effects on societies in different parts of China; the development of social complexity during the middle and late Neolithic periods; the development of regional cultural identities and processes of cross-cultural and regional interactions; and the alleged “collapse” of the Late Neolithic societies. It ends with an evaluation of the legacy of the Neolithic period and the contributions of Neolithic societies to the formation of Chinese culture.
