This article reassesses the social significance of Early Neolithic chambered tombs. It critically evaluates inferences about social organization drawn from tomb architecture and interpretations of kinship based on aDNA analyses of human remains from tombs. Adopting the perspective that kinship is a multifaceted and ongoing field of practice, it argues that the arrangement of tomb chambers was related to the negotiation of Early Neolithic kinship. Drawing together inferences about biological relatedness from aDNA analyses with interpretations of chamber arrangements, it suggests that variation in the architectural arrangements and sequential modification of chambered tombs relates to different ways of negotiating aspects of kinship, particularly descent and affinity. It presents interpretations of how kinship was negotiated at Early Neolithic tombs in different regions of Britain and Ireland and concludes that it is increasingly possible to gauge pattern and diversity in Neolithic negotiations of kinship, descent and affinity by combining different strands of evidence, including architectural arrangement.

本文重新评估了新石器时代早期墓葬的社会意义。它批判性地评估了从坟墓建筑中得出的关于社会组织的推论，以及基于对坟墓中人类遗骸的 DNA 分析对亲属关系的解释。认为亲属关系是一个多面且持续的实践领域，认为墓室的布置与新石器时代早期亲属关系的协商有关。将来自 aDNA 分析的生物相关性推论与对墓室安排的解释结合起来，它表明建筑安排的变化和墓室的顺序修改与谈判亲属关系方面的不同方式有关，特别是血统和亲缘关系。