Modeling the Replacement of Atlatl by Bow Weaponry: Technological Learning Curves and Task Differentiation in Prehistory

Summary

Understanding technological replacement is a ubiquitous problem in archaeology. Modeling the transition from atlatl to self bow has implications for elucidating the driving mechanisms behind why and how prehistoric culture change occurs worldwide. At different periods of human prehistory, atlatls were replaced by self bows as primary hunting weapons on all continents except Australia. Previous scholars have hypothesized that this shift may have occurred when changes in environment/subsistence strategies and/or a rise in social complexity and warfare favored the bow over the atlatl. Quantitative, diachronic data obtained from atlatl and self bow target shooting suggest that physical constraints and distinct patterns of learning inherent to using each weapon may have acted as causal factors of technological change under shifting environmental conditions when considered under a framework of human behavioral ecology. Furthermore, these data indicate that the transition from atlatl to bow would have necessitated changes in age and sex/gender-based task differentiation for prehistoric children, women, and men.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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