Is It Ritual? Or Is It Children? Distinguishing Consequences of Play from Ritual Actions in the Prehistoric Archaeological Record

Abstract

This paper identifies a significant interpretive issue for prehistoric archaeology: distinguishing adult ritual actions from the activities of children in the archaeological record. Through examining ethnographic accounts of recent huntergatherer children and reconsidering archaeological patterns and assemblages in light of these data, we explore how the results of children's play can be-and likely have been-misinterpreted by archaeologists as evidence for adult ritual behavior in prehistoric contexts. Given that children were a significant component of past hunter-gatherer (and other) societies, the fact that the material components of their activities overlap tremendously with items used in adult rituals must be routinely considered by archaeologists if we are to reconstruct robust understandings of past peoples all over the globe.

Playing with language, creating complexity: Has play contributed to the evolution of complex language?

“…58 This last study found that items typically classified by archeologists as "symbolic" in character (figurines, ornaments, musical instruments, and miniatures), are heavily linked to children's activities in modern hunter-gatherer communities. 58 In other words, children's material culture has likely been hiding in plain sight all along and we now need to further investigate these possibilities to elucidate the role of children in their respective prehistoric communities. Along these lines, the notable quantitative and qualitative differences between the symbolic material culture records of Neanderthals and contemporary/near contemporary modern humans come into play, because if figurines (for example) are an important part of child development activities (symbolic play), the lack of such items in Neanderthal contexts suggests that these hominins were not capable of "human-grade fantasy play" (p. 87) with implications for their cognitive plasticity.…”

“…In regards to other forms of material culture, Spikins et al (p. 128) has suggested that “symbolic objects [may have played] a distinctive internal role, one perhaps more focused on the involvement of children” a suggestion supported not only by child psychology which notes the importance of toys for enhancing learning in play, but also by a recent study of recent hunter‐gatherer children's playthings . This last study found that items typically classified by archeologists as “symbolic” in character (figurines, ornaments, musical instruments, and miniatures), are heavily linked to children's activities in modern hunter‐gatherer communities . In other words, children's material culture has likely been hiding in plain sight all along and we now need to further investigate these possibilities to elucidate the role of children in their respective prehistoric communities.…”

“…If such aggregations of Neanderthal bands did occur, these larger groups may have constituted cultural (or even linguistically) distinct groups of perhaps up to 200 individuals who preferentially interacted. Based on observations from extant hunter‐gatherers, it was found that children are under less strict supervision in such situations, and it might therefore be argued that Neanderthal children may have had some opportunity “to be kids” and indulge in more modern patterns of play during such group gatherings. If this unsupervised play did occur on regular (if rare) occasions, then we should expect a burst of learning among Neanderthal children at these times.…”

“…56 If such aggregations of Neanderthal bands did occur, these larger groups may have constituted cultural (or even linguistically) distinct groups of perhaps up to 200 individuals who preferentially interacted. Based on observations from extant hunter-gatherers, it was found that children are under less strict supervision in such situations, 58 and it might therefore be argued that Neanderthal children may have had some opportunity "to be kids" and indulge in more to modern humans, in Neanderthal tool production, 60 can be taken as further evidence for the predominance of imitation rather than innovation in social learning. Initially, such imitation is assumed to have been carried out with the aim of retaining functional characteristics of tools and artifacts, rather than their normative value as tribal markers or their social-affiliative potential for creating shared experience.…”

A rare miniature and small-scale stencil assemblage from the Gulf of Carpentaria: replication and meaning in Australian rock art

“…While these portable, miniature figurines have attracted scholarly attention from researchers for decades (e.g. Bailey 2005;Foxhall 2015;Langley & Litster 2018), miniature rock art motifs are comparatively less well known. Although the specific size dimensions used to classify a motif as 'miniature' vary, and in some cases are unspecified, miniature rock art motifs are widespread, and previous studies of them address questions of regional rock art chronologies, social interaction, cultural change and motivation for their production.…”