Analyzing Magdalenian social networks in their environmental context

Author(s): Claudine Gravel-Miguel

Year: 2016

Summary

This research argues for a refocus of the study of prehistoric social networks that involves contextualizing the inter-site links often interpreted as indicators of social interactions between different groups. It focuses on the social networks created during the 3 sub-periods of the Magdalenian in the Cantabrian and Dordogne regions, and visible through similarities of portable art representations. It uses Species Distribution Modeling and Maximum Classification Likelihood on faunal presence data to reconstruct prehistoric biomes and to contextualize the networks reconstructed through art analysis. It demonstrates the potential of mapping recreated networks onto reconstructed biomes and of identifying the linked sites' foraging and minimal band territories to distinguish between a single group's local mobility and inter-group social alliances. Looking at the differences in contextualized networks over time also allows understanding human-environment interactions, and how these affected human social organization in the Upper Paleolithic.

Cite this Record

Analyzing Magdalenian social networks in their environmental context. Claudine Gravel-Miguel. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, Florida. 2016 ( tDAR id: 404105) ; doi:10.6067/XCV85D8TM6

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: -20000 to -14000

Spatial Coverage

min long: -8.086; min lat: 39.368 ; max long: 5.273; max lat: 47.279 ;

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
CGM_SAA2016_presentation.pdf 11.25mb May 18, 2016 11:18:12 AM Public