Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Interpretations of emerged variability in the paleo-archaeological record often presuppose a plurality within the underlying process, be that process related to demography, cultural transmission, or a landscape-use behavior. We take by default the differences in, for example, frequencies of the same artifact attributes and faunal elements between sampled locations to represent different social groups and place uses. Calls for attention to the emergence of variability have already been made (e.g., G. Isaac’s “random walk patterning”), but the prevailing practice of regarding data as central tendencies themselves is ignoring the likelihood that, in the simplest terms, a single operating process can result in a broad range of variability or, conversely, that the same or limited variability can be the result of a number of different processes. The aim of this session is to reassess the meaning of emerged variability and its relation to a process or to interaction of processes. We will discuss how variability can become “afforded” by various factors forming the record: the properties of the raw material; functional and economic contingencies of tools, actions, and subsistence strategies; parameters of cultural transmission; but also by our own sampling and excavation strategies and accumulative life-histories of places, objects, and materials.
Other Keywords
Lithic Analysis •
Paleolithic •
Material Culture and Technology •
Paleoindian and Paleoamerican •
Experimental Archaeology •
Mobility •
Use-Wear Analysis •
Bone Tool Analysis •
Cultural Transmission •
Artifact Variability
Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Republic of Bulgaria (Country) •
Georgia (Country) •
Europe (Continent) •
Africa (Continent) •
Ukraine (Country) •
Republic of Lithuania (Country) •
Republic of Latvia (Country) •
Republic of Belarus (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)
- Documents (7)
-
Establishing Baselines for Stone Tool Variation Across the Early Pleistocene: A Least Effort Approach (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Our understanding of the evolution of human behavior is largely predicated on how stone tools vary through time and across space. Despite a long history of research, the behavioral processes associated with Early Pleistocene lithic technology remain debated. Some research suggests that lithic...
-
The Meaning of a Sample of Teeth Pendants from the Paleolithic Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria (Exc. 1971–1975) (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bone artifacts from the past are indicators of increased diversity in human behavior and culture. Determining the bone tool type can provide information about past technology, cultural provenience, symbolic expressions, and the type of exploited fauna that inhabited different geographical regions....
-
Paleoindian Lifeways Set in Stone: Studying Variation in Fluted-Point Assemblages (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Several studies have found variation in fluted-point technological attributes and morphology to be patterned in the Americas. Many of these patterns can be organized by geographical, ecological, and behavioral variables, and have helped formulate our current understanding of some of the earliest...
-
The Relationship between Knapping Technology and Stone Use in the MSA Landscape of Northern Butana in Sudan (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2022 we recorded more than 40 variously dense stone artifact concentrations of the Middle Stone Age in northern Butana between the Nile Valley and the Atbara paleolake in east-central Sudan. In general, the entire region between the Upper Egypt and the Ethiopian Highlands has seen very little...
-
The Role of Artifact Functional Analysis in Understanding Variation in the Archaeological Record: Assessments from Studies on Tool Design and Use (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding artifact variability observed in archaeological assemblages may untangle key dynamics marking the evolution of major human behavioral traits. Variability likely reflects technological changes allowing early hominins to respond to dynamic Pleistocene environments and evolving...
-
Simulating Lithic Assemblage Composition and Its Relationship to Mobility (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Artifact density and techno-morphological form distribution in lithic assemblages are often used to make inferences about mobility. However, the relationship between such observations and mobility strategies varies with socio-natural contexts, leading to contrasting interpretations of the same data....
-
Variability of Clovis Lithic Assemblages from El Fin del Mundo and the San Pedro River Valley (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Clovis populations have been traditionally characterized as wide ranging, highly mobile foragers, as reflected most notably in the intense utilization of high quality, nonlocal cryptocrystalline lithic raw materials. However, in Sonora, Mexico, local non-cryptocrystalline tool stones dominate Clovis...