Crop Domestication and Gender j 6767 67
from Çatalhüyük could function very well as an illustration for the myth of Meleager and his
band of heroes who destroy the Calydonian boar. Interestingly, three of the labors of Heracles
also involve variations on the same theme: the Erymanthian boar, the Cretan bull, and the birds
of Stymphalos. Moreover, animal depredation and the heroic efforts to defend against them are
not just myths from the ancient world; they are also completely contemporary. According to the
World Wildlife Fund, in India and Africa, substantial numbers of people— and elephants— are
killed every year in conflicts over crops and gardens, and, in the United States, struggles against
crop- destroying wild animals, particularly wild and feral pigs, result in the loss of millions of
dollars every year and sometimes even in human fatalities.- Lewis- Williams, David (2004). Constructing a cosmos: Architecture, power and domes-
tication at Çatalhöyük. Journal of Social Archaeology 4:28– 59. - Hodder, The Leopard’s Tale.
- Atalay, Sonya (2005), Domesticating clay: The role of clay balls, mini balls, and geo-
metric objects in daily life at Çatalhöyük, in I. Hodder, ed., Changing Materialities at
Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995– 99 Seasons, Çatalhöyük Project Volume 5. McDonald
Institute Monographs/ British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, chapter 6, p. 139– 168;
Atalay, Sonya, and Christine Hastorf (2005), Foodways at Çatalhöyük, in I. Hodder, ed.,
Çatalhöyük Perspectives: Themes from the 1995– 99 Seasons. Çatalhöyük Project Volume
6. McDonald Institute Monographs/ British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, chapter 8,
pp. 109– 124. - Atalay, Sonya (2003), Domesticating clay. Engaging with 'They': The Social Life of Clay
Balls from Çatalhöyük, Turkey and Public Archaeology for Indigenous Communities. Ph.D.
Dissertation. UC Berkeley Anthropology Department. - Fan, Maureen (2007, July 15), Chinese rice farmers battle a plague of munching mice.
Washington Post, A16. - The early spread of the house mouse (Mus musculus) is closely associated with the spread
of sedentism in the Levant, beginning around 12,000 years ago. Wherever people settled down
and began storing plant foods, the house mouse settled in with them. Once crops began to
be planted, field mice would have moved in as well. As the complex of plant domesticates
spread throughout the Fertile Crescent, the house mouse followed along (Bursot et al., 1993).
For example, M. musculus makes its first appearance on the island of Cyprus during the Early
Preceramic Neolithic, around 10,000 years ago, coincident with appearance of the first crops
(Cucchi et al., 2002). - According to Lewis- Williams, some of these small carnivores can also be seen as helpers
in the context of a symbolic/ spiritual configuration. In some rooms at Çatalhüyük are plaster
forms that appear to be breasts molded on the walls. Contained within the “breasts” are vulture
beaks, fox teeth, and, in one instance, a weasel skull. To Lewis- Williams they suggest “spirit
beings” emerging through walls. At Çatalhüyük “the walls were like ‘membranes’ between com-
ponents of the cosmos; behind them lay a realm from which spirits and spirit- animals could
emerge and be induced to emerge.” He writes, “wild animals have spiritual counterparts that
inhabit ... another tier of the shamanistic cosmos and that can become spirit guides or help-
ers. It is perhaps in terms of these concepts ... that the beaks, tusks and teeth set in moulded
breasts should be seen. It was the mouths of wild creatures that were being associated with
breasts. From both breasts and the mouths of wild animals emerged sustaining spiritual power.”