Simulation and the Identification of Archaeologically-Relevant Units of Analysis in the Study of Prehistoric Cultural Transmission

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Novel Statistical Techniques in Archaeology I (QUANTARCH I)" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Reconciling the archaeological record’s coarse grain with the person-to-person information exchanges central to cultural transmission (CT) models will allow us to better tap this powerful body of theory. Previous efforts at reconciliation demonstrated that within- and between-assemblage coefficients of variation (CV) are archaeologically relevant units of analysis in CT models (e.g., patterns of artifact attribute variation indicate particular learning biases and their relative strengths). Still lacking was a means of interpreting intermediate CVs—ones poorly aligned with independent standards for very high and very low CVs. Simulation can generate "artifacts" with well-specified production histories, and these simulated data can be used to interpret archaeological CVs. Here, I use simulations informed by rich contextual data to generate archaeologically-appropriate CT predictions for interpreting intermediate CVs observed in a collection of late prehistoric projectile points from the U.S. Southwest. Specifically, I simulated point attribute data under four learning scenarios: model-based biased transmission and within-household learning at three levels of transmission fidelity. The archaeological CVs are most consistent with extremely high-fidelity, within-household copying, which may reflect a strong group-affiliative norm or heightened incentive to "advertise" group membership given the social context in which the points were produced.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Novel Statistical Techniques in Archaeology I (QUANTARCH I)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23778