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Palacios O, Barceló JA, Delgado R. Exploring the role of ecology and social organisation in agropastoral societies: A Bayesian network approach. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0276088. [PMID: 36288335 PMCID: PMC9605033 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 09/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The present contribution focuses on investigating the interaction of people and environment in small-scale farming societies. Our study is centred on the particular way settlement location constraints economic strategy when technology is limited, and social division of work is not fully developed. Our intention is to investigate prehistoric socioeconomic organisation when farming began in the Old World along the Levant shores of Iberian Peninsula, the Neolithic phenomenon. We approach this subject extracting relevant information from a big set of ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological cases using Machine Learning methods. This paper explores the use of Bayesian networks as explanatory models of the independent variables-the environment- and dependent variables-social decisions-, and also as predictive models. The study highlights how subsistence strategies are modified by ecological and topographical variables of the settlement location and their relationship with social organisation. It also establishes the role of Bayesian networks as a suitable supervised Machine Learning methodology for investigating socio-ecological systems, introducing their use to build useful data-driven models to address relevant archaeological and anthropological questions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga Palacios
- Department of Prehistory, Laboratory of Quantitative Archaeology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | - Juan Antonio Barceló
- Department of Prehistory, Laboratory of Quantitative Archaeology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Rosario Delgado
- Department of Mathematics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
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Picin A, Wedage O, Blinkhorn J, Amano N, Deraniyagala S, Boivin N, Roberts P, Petraglia M. Homo sapiens lithic technology and microlithization in the South Asian rainforest at Kitulgala Beli-lena (c. 45 - 8,000 years ago). PLoS One 2022; 17:e0273450. [PMID: 36227910 PMCID: PMC9560501 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent archaeological investigations in Sri Lanka have reported evidence for the exploitation and settlement of tropical rainforests by Homo sapiens since c. 48,000 BP. Information on technological approaches used by human populations in rainforest habitats is restricted to two cave sites, Batadomba-lena and Fa-Hien Lena. Here, we provide detailed study of the lithic assemblages of Kitulgala Beli-lena, a recently excavated rockshelter preserving a sedimentary sequence from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene. Our analysis indicates in situ lithic production and the recurrent use of the bipolar method for the production of microliths. Stone tool analyses demonstrate long-term technological stability from c. 45,000 to 8,000 years BP, a pattern documented in other rainforest locations. Foraging behaviour is characterised by the use of lithic bipolar by-products together with osseous projectile points for the consistent targeting of semi-arboreal/arboreal species, allowing for the widespread and recurrent settlement of the wet zone of Sri Lanka.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Picin
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- Bereich für Ur- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, Jena, Germany
- * E-mail: (AP); (OW); (PR); (MP)
| | - Oshan Wedage
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- Department of History and Archaeology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Gangodawila, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka
- * E-mail: (AP); (OW); (PR); (MP)
| | - James Blinkhorn
- Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Noel Amano
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | | | - Nicole Boivin
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United States of America
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Patrick Roberts
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- * E-mail: (AP); (OW); (PR); (MP)
| | - Michael Petraglia
- School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United States of America
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
- * E-mail: (AP); (OW); (PR); (MP)
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Sánchez-Villagra MR. Claude Lévi-Strauss as a humanist forerunner of cultural macroevolution studies. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2022; 4:e31. [PMID: 37588929 PMCID: PMC10426008 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2022.30] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Cross-cultural studies of humans using methods developed in evolutionary biology and comparative linguistics are flourishing. 'Cultural macroevolution' has great potential to address fundamental questions of cultural transformation and human history. However, this field is poorly integrated with core cultural anthropology, although both aim in part at addressing similar issues. Claude Lévi-Strauss established a comparative approach searching for universals and documentation of diversity to bring understanding to cultural phenomena. Recognizing the nomothetic nature of Lévi-Strauss' work, his abstraction and modelling, provides an example within anthropology of the search for universals and the study of big data, akin to cultural macroevolution studies. The latter could benefit, beyond the sophisticated analyses of big data mined from ethnographic work, from the integration with the intellectual legacy and practice of core anthropology and thus propitiate the synergistic interaction of disciplines. Attempts at rapprochement of disciplines from the natural sciences that lack pluralism and present a narrow view are deemed examples of 'Wilson's effect'.
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Seasonal movements of Bronze Age transhumant pastoralists in western Xinjiang. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0240739. [PMID: 33147229 PMCID: PMC7641598 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2020] [Accepted: 10/01/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The paper explores seasonal movements of Bronze Age mobile pastoralists in the western Tianshan mountainous region of Xinjiang, China. Fieldwork by a team from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) and the University of Sydney, Australia have identified cyclical land use practices associated with the Andronovo cultural complex. Their pattern of seasonal movements has been reconstructed through ethnographic studies and analysis of modern snow and grass cover. Using this detailed combination of data, the study defines requirements for seasonal pastures–winter, summer and spring/autumn–and shows a clear correlation between modern land use and seasonal patterns of movement in the Bronze Age.
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Bartha P. Norton's material theory of analogy. STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 2020; 82:104-113. [PMID: 32773058 DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2019] [Revised: 10/14/2019] [Accepted: 01/12/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
In his book, The Material Theory of Induction, Norton argues that the quest for a universal formal theory or 'schema' for analogical inference should be abandoned. In its place, he offers the "material theory of analogy": each analogical inference is "powered" by a local fact of analogy rather than by any formal schema. His minimalist model promises a straightforward, fact-based approach to the evaluation and justification of analogical inferences. This paper argues that although the rejection of universal schemas is justified, Norton's positive theory is limited in scope: it works well only for a restricted class of analogical inferences. Both facts and quasi-formal criteria have roles to play in a theory of analogical reasoning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Bartha
- Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, Canada.
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Currie A, Turner D. Introduction: Scientific knowledge of the deep past. STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 2016; 55:43-46. [PMID: 26774068 DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2015.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2015] [Revised: 09/11/2015] [Accepted: 09/16/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
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