Çatalhöyük households prioritized maternal kinships with females staying put and receiving preferential infant burials for 1000 years.
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Maternal lineage dominated genetic ties within Çatalhöyük houses. Female offspring stayed connected to buildings 70-100% of time. Adult males likely dispersed from natal houses. Female subadults received five times more grave goods than males. Early phases featured extended family burials in houses. Later phases buried genetically unrelated neonates in same houses. Unrelated neonates' mothers shared similar diets. Fostering or adoption replaced genetic relatedness over time. Female-centered practices persisted throughout 1000-year occupation. No sex-biased mobility into settlement. Contrasts later Anatolian-origin European patrilocality and male elite burials. Houses shifted from biological kin to flexible social units in dozens of generations. Female figurines align with identified female burial preferences. Kinship patterns malleable in early farming village.

Genetics Antiquity Agriculture Science Women Demographics Culture

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