Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-28T03:16:09.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ceramic Style Change and Neutral Evolution: A Case Study from Neolithic Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

S. J. Shennan  and
J. R. Wilkinson
S. J. Shennan
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Sq, London WC1H OPY, UK
J. R. Wilkinson
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Sq, London WC1H OPY, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Following on the work of Dunnell, the evolutionary archaeology school has made a sharp distinction between functional and stylistic variation in archaeological artifacts. Variation is defined as functional if it is affected by selection processes and as stylistic if it is a result of processes of random drift. The argument has been further developed by Neiman (1995), who showed by simulation that processes of cultural mutation and drift could produce the kinds of "battleship curves" that generally characterize artifact-style frequency distributions through time, and also demonstrated that they could account for patterns of stylistic variation through time in Woodland-period ceramic assemblages from Illinois. In this paper we present a case study of change in the decoration of pottery from early Neolithic Central Europe. We show that the actual diachronic frequency distributions and those expected under the neutral model do not coincide and conclude that in this case the neutral model does not provide an adequate description of change in ceramic decoration. A model involving selection, in the form of a bias in favor of novelty in the later phases of the period studied, seems likely to be more appropriate, and we note the social interpretation of the original investigator of the data. In conclusion, it is suggested that neutral models provide an important heuristic tool but that there is not a radical break between functional and stylistic variation.

Résumé

Résumé

Siguiendo a Dunnell, la escuela de ‘arqueología evolucionista’ ha profesado una clara distinción entre la variatión funcional y la variación estilística de los artefactos arqueológicos. Se puede definir variación como funcional si ésta es afectada porprocesos de selectión y como estilística si es el resultado de procesos de deriva aleatoria. Este argumento ha sido desarrollado en mayor detalle por Neiman (1995), quien demostró por medio de estudios de simulatión que los procesos de mutatión y deriva producen los tipos de curvas en forma de “barcos de batalla ” que generalmente caracterizan la distributión de estilos del artefacto y quién además demostró que estos procesos explican los patrones de variación estilística de los conjuntos cerámicos del período Woodland en Illinois. En este ensayo nosotros presentamos un ejemplo del cambio de la decoratión en la cerámica del Neolitico temprano de Europa Central. Demostramos que las distribuciones de frecuencias actuates diacrónicas así como las esperadas en el modelo neutral sencillamente no proveen una explicacación adecuada de los cambios de decoración en la cerámica. Antes bien, proponemos que es más probable que la explicatión resida en un modelo de selectión, el cual favorece innovatión hacia las fases finales del período bajo consideratión tomando además en cuenta la interpretatión social que el investigador original extrajo de los datos. En conclusión sugerimos que los modelos explicativos neutros nos proporcionan una importante herramienta heurística pew que, a su vez, hay una separatión radical entre la variatión funcional y la estilística.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , October 2001 , pp. 577 - 593
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bar-Yosef, O., and Kuhn, S. L. 1999 The Big Deal about Blades: Laminar Technology and Human Evolution. American Anthropologist 101: 322–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barton, C. M., and Clark, G. A. (editors) 1997 Rediscovering Darwin: Evolutionary Theory and Archeological Explanation. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association No. 7, American Anthropological Association, Washington D.C. Google Scholar
Bettinger, R. L., Boyd, R., and Richerson, P. J. 1996 Style, Function and Evolutionary Processes. In Darwinian Archaeologies, edited by G, H. D.. Maschner, pp. 133–164. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Boyd, R., and Richerson, P. J. 1985 Culture and the Evolutionary Process. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Collard, M., and Shennan, S. J. 2000 Processes of Culture Change in Prehistory: A Case Study from the European Neolithic. In Archaeogenetics: DNA and the Population Prehistory of Europe, edited by Renfrew, C. and Boyle, K., pp. 89–97. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Dunnell, R. C. 1980 Evolutionary Theory and Archaeology. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 3, edited by Schiffer, M. B., pp. 35–99. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Durham, W. H. 1992 Applications of Evolutionary Culture Theory. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 331—355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eigen, M. 1992 Steps Towards Life. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Ewens, W. J. 1972 The Sampling Theory of Selectively Neutral Alleles. Theoretical Population Biology 3: 87–112.Google Scholar
Frirdich, C. 1994 Kulturgeschichtliche Betrachtungen zur Bandkeramik im Merzbachtal. In Die Bandkeramik im Merzbachtal auf der Aldenhovener Platte, edited by Liming, J. and Stehli, P., pp. 207–394. Habelt, Bonn.Google Scholar
Guglielmino, C. R., Viganotti, C., Hewlett, B., and Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. 1995 Cultural Variation in Africa: Role of Mechanisms of Transmission and Adaptation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 92: 7585–7589.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hegmon, M. 1992 Archaeological Research on Style. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 517–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimura, M. 1983 The Neutral Allele Theory of Molecular Evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lipo, C. P., Madsen, M. E., Dunnell, R. C., and Hunt, T. 1997 Population Structure, Cultural Transmission, and Frequency Sedation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 16: 301–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lüning, J., and Stehli, P. 1994 Die Bandkeramik im Merzbachtal auf derAldenhovener Platte. Habelt, Bonn.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. L., O’Brien, M. J., and Dunnell, R. C. 1997 The Rise and Fall of Culture History. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Mace, R., and Pagel, M. 1994 The Comparative Method in Anthropology. Current Anthropology 35: 549–564.Google Scholar
Mattheusser, E. 1994 Eine Entwicklungsgeschichte der Bandkeramik zwischen Rhein und Maas. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Seminar for Pre- and Proto-history, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main.Google Scholar
Maschner, H.D.G. (editor) 1996 Darwinian Archaeologies. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Neiman, F. D. 1995 Stylistic Variation in Evolutionary Perspective: Inferences from Decorative Diversity and Interassemblage Distance in Illinois Woodland Ceramic Assemblages. American Antiquity 60: 7–36.Google Scholar
O’Brien, M., and Holland, T. D. 1992 The Role of Adaptation in Archaeological Explanation. American Antiquity 57: 36–59.Google Scholar
O’Brien, M., and Lyman, R. L. 2000 Darwinian Evolutionism Is Applicable to Historical Archaeology. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 4: 71–112.Google Scholar
Shennan, S. J. 1997 Quantifying Archaeology. 2nd edition. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Shennan, S. J., and Steele, J. 1999 Cultural Learning in Hominids: a Behavioural Ecological Approach. In Mammalian Social Learning: Comparative and Ecological Perspectives, edited by Box, H. O. and Gibson, K.R. pp. 367–388. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Smith, E. A., and Winterhalder, B. (editors) 1992 Evolutionary Ecology and Human Social Behavior. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.Google Scholar
Stehli, P. 1994 Chronologie der Bandkeramik im Merzbachtal. In Die Bandkeramik im Merzbachtal auf der Aldenhovener Platte, edited by Lüning, J. and Stehli, P., pp. 79–192. Habelt, Bonn.Google Scholar
Teltser, P.A. (editor) 1995 Evolutionary Archaeology: Methodological Issues. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, J. R. 1997 Ceramics as Viral Quasi-Species. Unpublished M.A. dissertation, Institute of Archaeology, University College London.Google Scholar