The Border of Farming and the Cultural Markers - Nordlige Verdener

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present day Oslo Fjord area. The Neolithisation
of the British Isles happened
as a push from Western and Northern
present day France, and this push
reached its ultimate boundary approximately
60° North on Shetland, and according
to past maritime technology further
expansion was impossible.
Shetland is moreover a closed unit, although
it is scarcely also a closed laboratory.
One of the tasks set by this research
project will be to clarify possible
outward relations after the islands were
first colonised by the farming population.
It is evident that the Neolithic cultures
on Shetland were related to the
rest of the Neolithic traditions in North-
West Europe, and it is just as evident
that the Neolithic communities developed
their own cultural traits with regards
to tools, building traditions, and
grave monuments.
Two cases of pioneer societies
This paper deals with peopling Shetland
as there are different challenges to understanding
the Neolithisation on the
mainland on the British Isles and the
continent and on islands especially of
the size of Shetland and Orkney. As
mentioned in the introduction some of
the Neolithic elements if not all are
present in Shetland, which indicate that
there was a well functioning society on
Shetland during the Neolithic Period
(Mahler 2011a & b). This brings me to
deal with the question of demographic
aspects, wondering how island populations
survive their initial colonization.
A pioneer society consisting of a 100
persons may well be economical successful,
but if 98 of them are men and
only 2 women the demographic prospective
is not prosperous. Besides population
size we talk about three main elements,
namely birth rate or fertility,
death rate and sex ratio (Moore 2001:
397; Moore & Moseley 2001: 526; Robert-Lamblin
2006: 235 ff.). It is also important
to remember that even a fairly
large population of let say 100 persons,
males and females in the reproductive
age will, after some hundreds of years,
have great difficulties finding an acceptable
marriage partner avoiding the society’s
definition of incest. These definitions
could force the society to an
exogamous marriage system (Moore
2001: 406). Beside there is not a “magic
number” for a population size that ensures
a band’s viability in a new environment.
“There is no such number. Initial size is
only one factor contributing to the success
of a colonizing group. Probably
more important is birth rate, and good
luck in having a balanced number of
male and females born into the band...”
(Moore & Moseley 2001: 528).