Recent discoveries in the PPNA of southern Jordan illustrate a highly heterogenous set of mortuary practices. These are enacted within a southern Jordan Neolithic that is now well-established as having its own distinctive dynamics within the wider Near Eastern Neolithic. This local tradition was sufficiently established that it maintained a strong identity through the PPNA, where local adaptations appear to have continued in parallel with new arrivals from the northern EPPNB, and generated a Middle PPNB that combined elements of both traditions. A pattern of generally small sites with a high frequency of communal architecture suggests that these sites were not always discrete self-contained settlements, but parts of a regional network, where communities extended across the landscape. Recent discoveries illustrate how mortuary practices may have served to actively construct these communities and networks, reflecting Neolithic ideologies, and opening up small-scale societies to dynamic change.