Yangshao Culture is a culture dominated by agriculture. Its villages may be large or small. The houses in the larger villages have a certain layout, there is a ditch around them, and there are cemeteries and kilns outside the village. There are mainly two types of houses in the village, round or square.
The early houses were mostly round single rooms, and the later houses were mostly square with multiple rooms. The house is a mixture of mud and grass. The walls of the house are made of mud, some grass is mixed inside, and the skeleton is made of wood. The exterior of the wall is mostly covered with grass and burnt to enhance its firmness and water resistance. Site selection is generally on the terraces formed by long-term erosion on both sides of the river, or on the higher and flat place where the two rivers meet.
The layout of the settlement buildings is neat and orderly. The Banpo settlement is relatively well preserved, with the residential area in the center surrounded by a large moat, with the burial area in the north and kilns in the east. A total of more than 40 house remains were revealed, one big house was used as a place for public activities, and dozens of other small and medium-sized houses faced the big house, forming a half-moon layout.
Residents of Yangshao culture are buried according to certain burial customs after death. There are many rectangular earth pit tombs, and there are funerary objects such as pottery in the tombs. Children are buried in urn coffins. Orthopedic burials with a single person on their backs are popular, but joint burials account for a certain proportion. The number of people buried together varies, with as many as 80 people.
In the burial system, thick burials for women and joint burials for mothers and children are implemented, which reflects the characteristics of women as the center. The unified layout of the settlement houses facing the central square shows that the blood ties that maintained the unity of the clan were deeply rooted at that time. These are consistent with the characteristics of matrilineal clan social organization.
However, some scholars believe that the Yangshao culture has shown people the social structure and cultural achievements from the decline of the matrilineal clan system to the early patrilineal society in China. It is mainly a patrilineal society[13]. The tombs of adult men and women, the tombs of adult men and children, and a large number of small house sites indicate that monogamous families are increasing and occupying a dominant position; “ash pit burials” indicate the existence of non-free people (slaves).
The pottery (stone) ancestors and phantom pictures that embody the worship of male genitals, as well as the relics and relics that express “noble feelings”, are reflections of patriarchy and monarchy (hereditary chiefs) rule in the ideological field. There are various signs that the Central Plains began to enter the patriarchal clan society in the early Yangshao culture, and generally entered the patrilineal clan society in the middle period.
