Analysing the Diversification of Cultural Variants using Longitudinal Richness Data

Gjesfjeld, Erik; Crema, Enrico R.; Kandler, Anne

doi:10.31219/osf.io/nkfet

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…E. Gjesfjeld and his co-authors' model (2020a) considers cultural development in the context of replication rates and the extension of traits. The factor of cultural transmission may be added to these two factors (Gjesfjeld et al, 2020b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Organized Cultural Cycles and the Uncertainty of Archaeological Thought

Diachenko

Sobkowiak‐Tabaka

2022

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Contributing to the issue of complex relationship between social and cultural evolution, this paper aims to analyze repetitive patterns, or cycles, in the development of material culture. Our analysis focuses on culture change associated with sociopolitical and economic stasis. The proposed toy model describes the cyclical character of the quantitative and qualitative composition of archaeological assemblages, which include hierarchically organized cultural traits. Cycles sequentially process the stages of unification, diversity, and return to unification. This complex dynamic behavior is caused by the ratio between cultural traits’ replication rate and the proportion of traits of the higher taxonomic order’s related unit. Our approach identifies a shift from conformist to anti-conformist transmission, corresponding with open and closed phases in cultural evolution in respect to the introduction of innovations. The model also describes the dependence of a probability for horizontal transmission upon orders of taxonomic hierarchy during open phases. The obtained results are indicative for gradual cultural evolution at the low orders of taxonomic hierarchy and punctuated evolution at its high orders. The similarity of the model outcomes to the patters of material culture change reflecting societal transformations enables discussions around the uncertainty of explanation in archaeology and anthropology.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Organized Cultural Cycles and the Uncertainty of Archaeological Thought

Diachenko

Sobkowiak‐Tabaka

2022

J Archaeol Method Theory

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“…This data set, originally discussed elsewhere by Diachenko et al (2020), consists of Western Tripolye culture ceramics from the Southern Bug and Dnieper inter uve dated to 4100 − 3600 BCE. It includes c. 25,000 ceramic fragments -where each fragment, restored or complete vessel is counted as one artefact-, as well as restored or complete vessels analyzed by Sergej Ryzhov. In this period, the region is widely known for its mega-sites, hosting the largest population agglomeration in Neolithic Europe.…”

Section: Wtc Ceramicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entropology: an information-theoretic approach to understanding archaeological data

Gheorghiade

Vasiliauskaite

Diachenko

et al. 2023

Preprint

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This paper presents new tactics for characterizing the relationship between archaeological assemblages, based on entropy and its related attributes, primarily diversity, borrowing heavily from ecology. Our starting premise is that diachronic change in our data is a likely, albeit distorted, reflection of social processes and that spatial difference in data reflects cultural separation. To explore this, we have adopted a null model for comparing assemblage profiles. The modelling is tested on i) a Late Bronze Age Cretan data set compiled by one of us (PG) and ii) a 4th millennium Western Tripolye data set that was analysed earlier. The contrast between the strongly geographically and culturally heterogeneous Bronze Age Crete and the strongly homogeneous Western Tripolye culture in the Southern Bug and Dnieper interfluve show the successes and limitations of our approach. As such, this paper is not primarily about Late Bronze Age (LBA) Crete or Western Tripolye culture per se, although the modelling contributes to our understanding of Cretan archaeology of this period. A fuller discussion of Cretan archaeology and LBA datasets will be given elsewhere. Rather, we use the paper to exemplify problems with archaeological data. Even though we have ‘lots of Cretan data’ (originally 13,000 + artefacts) we cannot consider this as ‘big data’. Due to poor statistics, they only permit non-semantic analysis, particularly important when our aggregation protocols depend on how representative our data is, and whether our assemblages are treated as censuses or samples.

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Entropology: an Information-Theoretic Approach to Understanding Archaeological Data

Gheorghiade,

Vasiliauskaite,

Diachenko

et al. 2023

J Archaeol Method Theory

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The main objective of this paper is to develop quantitative measures for describing the diversity, homogeneity, and similarity of archaeological data. It presents new approaches to characterize the relationship between archaeological assemblages by utilizing entropy and its related attributes, primarily diversity, and by drawing inspiration from ecology. Our starting premise is that diachronic changes in our data provide a distorted reflection of social processes and that spatial differences in data indicate cultural distancing. To investigate this premise, we adopt a parsimonious approach for comparing assemblage profiles employing and comparing a range of (Hill) diversities, which enable us to exploit different aspects of the data. The modelling is tested on two seemingly large datasets: a Late Bronze Age Cretan dataset with circa 13,700 entries (compiled by PG); and a 4th millennium Western Tripolye dataset with circa 25,000 entries (compiled by AD). The contrast between the strongly geographically and culturally heterogeneous Bronze Age Crete and the strongly homogeneous Western Tripolye culture in the Southern Bug and Dnieper interfluve show the successes and limitations of our approach. Despite the seemingly large size of our datasets, these data highlight limitations that confine their utility to non-semantic analysis. This requires us to consider different ways of treating and aggregating assemblages, either as censuses or samples, contingent upon the degree of representativeness of the data. While our premise, that changes in data reflect societal changes, is supported, it is not definitively confirmed. Consequently, this paper also exemplifies the limitations of large archaeological datasets for such analyses.

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Analysing the Diversification of Cultural Variants using Longitudinal Richness Data

Cited by 3 publications

References 35 publications

Self-Organized Cultural Cycles and the Uncertainty of Archaeological Thought

Self-Organized Cultural Cycles and the Uncertainty of Archaeological Thought

Entropology: an information-theoretic approach to understanding archaeological data

Entropology: an Information-Theoretic Approach to Understanding Archaeological Data

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