Allometry, Modularity, and Integration: Applying Biological Concepts and Statistical Tests to Stone Tool Shapes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Most landmark-based geometric morphometric statistical analyses of stone tools are lifted from biological applications. The concepts are not always directly applicable, leading to unfounded interpretations of statistical results. Sometimes the problem is an imprecise definition of terms, but often the problem is an imperfect translation of a biological concept to an archaeological problem. A key to proper translation can be understanding what is actually being tested in the statistics. Here, we work back from the statistical tests for allometry, modularity, and integration in the geomorph statistical R package to better understand how those biological concepts can be profitably applied to archaeology. The results give us deeper insight into how stone tools were designed and used.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32574