scholarly journals Design Space Constraints and the Cultural Taxonomy of European Final Palaeolithic Large Tanged Points: A Comparison of Typological, Landmark-Based and Whole-Outline Geometric Morphometric Approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Matzig ◽  
Shumon T. Hussain ◽  
Felix Riede
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Clustering Algorithms ◽  
Tool Manufacture ◽  
Geometric Morphometric ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Culture Variability ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

AbstractThe identification of material culture variability remains an important goal in archaeology, as such variability is commonly coupled with interpretations of cultural transmission and adaptation. While most archaeological cultures are defined on the basis of typology and research tradition, cultural evolutionary reasoning combined with computer-aided methods such as geometric morphometrics (GMM) can shed new light on the validity of many such entrenched groupings, especially in regard to European Upper Palaeolithic projectile points and their classification. Little methodological consistency, however, makes it difficult to compare the conclusions of such studies. Here, we present an effort towards a benchmarked, case-transferrable toolkit that comparatively explores relevant techniques centred on outline-based GMM. First, we re-analyse two previously conducted landmark-based analyses of stone artefacts using our whole-outline approach, demonstrating that outlines can offer an efficient and reliable alternative. We then show how a careful application of clustering algorithms to GMM outline data is able to successfully discriminate between distinctive tool shapes and suggest that such data can also be used to infer cultural evolutionary histories matching already observed typo-chronological patterns. Building on this baseline work, we apply the same methods to a dataset of large tanged points from the European Final Palaeolithic (ca. 15,000–11,000 cal BP). Exploratively comparing the structure of design space within and between the datasets analysed here, our results indicate that Final Palaeolithic tanged point shapes do not fall into meaningful regional or cultural evolutionary groupings but exhibit an internal outline variance comparable to spatiotemporally much closer confined artefact groups of post-Palaeolithic age. We discuss these contrasting results in relation to the architecture of lithic tool design spaces and technological differences in blank production and tool manufacture.

scholarly journals Simulating cultural transmission: preliminary results and their implications for the study of formal variability of material culture in the Central Balkan Neolithic

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 137-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Porčić ◽  
Miloš Nešić
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
External Factor ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Spatial Distributions ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
Culture Variability ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

 In this paper, we adopt the theoretical framework of evolutionary archaeology in order to model and simulate cultural transmission between hypothetical Neolithic sites in Balkans. We simulate neutral cultural transmission in order to compare the simulation results with empirically observed patterns of material culture variability such as traditional archaeological cultures. Our preliminary results show that a series of random local interactions can result in spatial groupings of typologically similar assemblages that correspond to the spatial distributions of traditional archaeological cultures, even in the absence of any other ‘external’ factor such as an overarching regional political structure or shared collective identity.

A Trait-Based Analysis of Structural Evolution in Prehistoric Monumental Burials of Southeastern Arabia

2019 ◽  
pp. 141-160
Author(s):  
Eugenio Bortolini
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Diversity Measures ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

This work analyses change in prehistoric funerary structures and related material culture of Early Bronze Age eastern Arabia (Northern Oman and UAE, 3100-2000 BC) from the perspective of cultural evolutionary theory. By observing decorative and structural elements in monumental tombs and pottery, new hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of cultural transmission can be explored. The main objective is to transcend the traditional dichotomy between early and late tomb types by creating an explanatory framework that looks at diachronic variation for inferring cultural processes. The research develops a new systematic description of burials and ceramics. Diversity measures are used to investigate the role played by human interaction/isolation and demography in determining adoption, replication, and systematic preference and persistence of the examined cultural variants. Results confirm that, for both tombs and ceramics, specific mechanisms are at work in different moments of time. Starting to research the processes underlying structural change allows for a reassessment of the current interpretation of prehistoric funerary practices and generates new hypotheses on the movement of people and ideas in a still largely unexplored context.

scholarly journals Current and potential roles of archaeology in the development of cultural evolutionary theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1743) ◽  
pp. 20170057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raven Garvey
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Archaeological Analysis

Archaeology has much to contribute to the study of cultural evolution. Empirical data at archaeological timescales are uniquely well suited to tracking rates of cultural change, detecting phylogenetic signals among groups of artefacts, and recognizing long-run effects of distinct cultural transmission mechanisms. Nonetheless, these are still relatively infrequent subjects of archaeological analysis and archaeology's potential to help advance our understanding of cultural evolution has thus far been largely unrealized. Cultural evolutionary models developed in other fields have been used to interpret patterns identified in archaeological records, which in turn provides independent tests of these models' predictions, as demonstrated here through a study of late Prehistoric stone projectile points from the US Southwest. These tests may not be straightforward, though, because archaeological data are complex, often representing events aggregated over many years (or centuries or millennia), while processes thought to drive cultural evolution (e.g. biased learning) operate on much shorter timescales. To fulfil archaeology's potential, we should continue to develop models specifically tailored to archaeological circumstances, and explore ways to incorporate the rich contextual data produced by archaeological research. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution’.

scholarly journals An Exercise in Theoretical Archaeology: Do Archaeological Cultures Exist?

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 633
Author(s):  
Marko Porčić
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Justification ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
Traditional Definition ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

Archaeological culture still persists as a basic analytical and interpretative concept in Serbian archaeology despite criticism. This paper presents a formal view of archaeological cultures and explores the epistemological implications of this formalization. Formal analysis of archaeological culture is achieved through logical and quantitative explication of the traditional definition of archaeological cultures. The main result of the formal analysis is that there are real patterns of formal variability of material culture that may or may not correspond to traditional archaeological cultures. These patterns are real only in the analytical sense – they are real for given input data and scale of analysis. Unlike the traditional approach where this patterns are equated with archaeological cultures which are furthered interpreted in essentialist terms or as quasi- organic entities such as ethnic groups, it is claimed here that discovered patterns are only the starting point – the empirical situation that needs to be accounted for in anthropological an historical terms. This paper shows how patterns that are traditionally identified as archaeological cultures can arise as a consequence of an entire range of processes – different social and historical realities. The main conclusion is that the traditional concept of archaeological culture is not useful neither as analytical or interpretative tools for two reasons: 1) traditional cultures are subjectively defined entities with no theoretical justification for the criteria used in their definition and 2) the empirical pattern cannot be an explanation in itself because it is the thing that needs to be explained. Cultural evolutionary (transmission) theory is proposed as a general framework for defining and interpreting patterns of formal variability of material culture in time and space.

Prestige does not affect the cultural transmission of novel controversial arguments in an online transmission chain experiment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel V. Jiménez ◽  
Alex Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Reliable Effect ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Relevant Domain ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
High Prestige ◽  
The Prestige

Cultural evolutionary theories define prestige as social rank that is freely conferred on individuals possessing superior knowledge or skill, in order to gain opportunities to learn from such individuals. Consequently, information provided by prestigious individuals should be more memorable, and hence more likely to be culturally transmitted, than information from non-prestigious sources, particularly for novel, controversial arguments about which pre-existing opinions are absent or weak. It has also been argued that this effect extends beyond the prestigious individual’s relevant domain of expertise. We tested whether the prestige and relevance of the sources of novel, controversial arguments affected the transmission of those arguments, independently of their content. In a four-generation linear transmission chain experiment, British participants (N=192) recruited online read two conflicting arguments in favour of or against the replacement of textbooks by computer tablets in schools. Each of the two conflicting arguments was associated with one of three sources with different levels of prestige and relevance (high prestige, high relevance; high prestige, low relevance; low prestige, low relevance). Participants recalled the pro-tablets and anti-tablets arguments associated with each source and their recall was then passed to the next participant within their chain. Contrary to our predictions, we did not find a reliable effect of either the prestige or relevance of the sources of information on transmission fidelity. We discuss whether the lack of a reliable effect of prestige on recall might be a consequence of differences between how prestige operates in this experiment and in everyday life.

Phylogenetic and morphometric analyses of Eastern fluted-point forms

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matthew T. Boulanger
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Cladistic Analysis ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Character State ◽  
State Change ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Morphometric Analyses ◽  
The University

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation constitutes two mutually complementary approaches to the study of Paleoindian material culture in eastern North America, ca. 13,500-10,500 calendar years before present. Archaeologists have long held that the East contains a substantially greater degree of morphological variation in Paleoindian point forms, though precisely why this is the case has rarely been explained. It is also unclear how many of the various point forms relate to each other in an evolutionary sense--which forms are derived from which, and why? Morphological analyses are conducted on a large sample of intact Paleoindian projectile points from across the East. I use paradigmatic classification to establish classes for use in a cladistic analysis to evaluate heritable continuity within the sample. Results of this analysis suggest that shape and form of Paleoindian projectile points changed in a more-or-less stochastic fashion across space, and evidence for strong selective pressure is limited. Findings concerning the process of character-state change suggest that some characters become fixed early in the evolution of points, whereas others appear to change frequently. The results of this study demonstrate that changes in Paleoindian projectile points can be explained within a cultural-evolution framework.

scholarly journals Book review: The prehistoric apprentice: Investigating apprenticeship, know-how and expertise in prehistoric technologies; L’apprenti préhistorique: Appréhender l’apprentissage, les savoir-faire et l’expertise à travers les productions techniques des soci

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manek Kolhatkar
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Technological Organization ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
French And English ◽  
Culture Variability

Describing cultural change and variability and inferring sociocultural dynamics about past people and communities may be among archaeology’s main goals as a field of practice. In this regard, the concept of skill has proved its usefulness to, time and again, expand the breath of archaeologists and lithic technologists’ analyses. It covers a wide range of applications, from apprenticeship, cognition, paleo-sociology, spatial organization. It is one of the main causes for material culture variability, up there with raw material constraints, design, technological organization or cultural norms. Yet, while skill has certainly been the focus of some research in the last decades, it remains quite peripheral, when considering how central the concept should be to technological inquiries. Whatever the reasons may be, this book, edited by Laurent Klaric and fully bilingual (French and English), aims at changing that, and argues for skill to become a central concern in lithic technology. Its chapters do so strongly and the end-result is a book that should become a reference for lithic technologists, whatever their research interests or schools of thought may be.

scholarly journals Early Neolithic of Trans-Urals: the contemporary view on historiographic problems

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-208
Author(s):  
Vadim Sergeevich Mosin ◽  
Ekaterina Sergeevna Yakovleva
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Statistical Processing ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Decorative Motifs ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Source Study ◽  
Bodies Of Evidence ◽  
Radiocarbon Chronology ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

This paper is devoted to the critical issues of historiography and source study in the early Neolithic of the Trans-Urals. The authors consider basic dated monuments in the context of radiocarbon chronology; analyze the established criteria for identifying archaeological cultures and ceramic traditions and types of this period. Based on statistical processing of the ceramics of the forest-steppe Tobol region settlements: Tashkovo 1, Dolgovskoe 3, Kochegarovo 1, Ust-Suerka 4, the authors distinguish some stadial features in the evolving of the material culture of the early Neolithic in the first and second halves of 6 thousand BC. Attention is paid, firstly, to the co-existence of Koshkino and Kozlovo ancientries within the settlements, and, secondly, to the coincidence of a number of characteristics of Koshkino and Kozlovo material culture regarding the morphology of potteries, ornamentation techniques and basic decorative motifs. Within the framework of a sociocultural approach, it is proposed to consider the bodies of evidence as complexes of two coexisting and interacting traditions within one sociocultural space, understood in the source sense as an archaeological culture, instead of dividing them into two independent lines of development. Besides it is emphasized that the problem of the Neolithization of Trans-Urals, on the basis of the available data, at this time cannot be solved plausible.

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