Abstract
There has been significant debate in paleoanthropology and more recently, archaeology, over the concept of mosaic evolution. Essentially, proponents of the concept argue that different aspects of organisms evolve separately while others argue that organisms evolve as integrated entities. Similarly, archaeologists debate the relevance of cultural evolution as a complex multi-scalar process. In this paper we conduct two cladistic analyses of cultural phenomena focusing on skateboard decks and projectile points from an archaeological site to examine variability in the evolutionary process. We find evidence for mosaic evolution in both studies and conclude that modularity likely is an important factor in cultural evolution, at least at the level of artifact design. We caution future investigators of evolution in ancient stone tools that modularity could have complicating effects on phylogenetic outcomes unless explicitly considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Andrefsky, W., Jr. (2009). Lithics: Macroscopic approaches to analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Boyd, R., Mulder, M. B., Durham, W. H., & Richerson, P. J. (1997). Are cultural phylogenies possible? In P. Weingart, S. D. Mitchell, P. J. Richerson, S. Maasen (Eds.), Human by nature: Between biology and the social sciences (pp. 355–384). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Brace, C. L. (1995). Biocultural interaction and the mechanism of mosaic evolution in the emergence of “Modern” morphology. American Anthropologist, 97, 711–721.
Brandon, R. N. (1999). The units of selection revisited: The modules of selection. Biology and Philosophy, 14, 167–180.
Buchanan, B., & Collard, M. (2007). Investigating the peopling of North America through cladistic analysis of early paleoindian projectile points. Journal of Archaeological Science, 26, 366–393.
Chatters, J. C. (2009). A macroevolutionary perspective on the archaeological record of North America. In A. M. Prentiss, I. Kuijt, & J. C. Chatters (Eds.), Macroevolution in human prehistory: Evolutionary theory and processual archaeology (pp. 213–234). New York: Springer.
Chatters, J. C., Hackenberger, S., Lenz, B., Prentiss, A. M., Thomas, J-L. (2012). The paleoindian to archaic transition in the pacific northwest: In situ development or ethnic replacement. In C. B. Bousman, & B. J. Vierra (Eds.), On the brink: Transformations in human organization and adaptation at the pleistocene-holocene boundary in North America (pp. 37–66). Texas: Texas A & M Press, College Station.
Clarke, J. A., & Middleton, K. M. (2008). Mosaicism, modules, and the evolution of birds: Results from a Bayesian approach to the study of morphological evolution using discrete character data. Systematic Biology, 57, 185–201.
Collard, M., Shennan, S. J., & Tehrani, J. J. (2006). Branching, blending, and the evolution of cultural similarities and differences among human populations. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 169–184.
Crema, E. R., Kerig, T., & Shennan, S. (2014). Culture, space, and metapopulation: A simulation-based study for evaluating signals for blending and branching. Journal of Archaeological Science, 43, 289–298.
Dagg, J. L. (2011). Exploring mouse trap history. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 4, 397–414.
Darwent, J., & O’Brien, M. J. (2006). Using cladistics to construct lineages of projectile points from Northeast Missouri. In C. P. Lipo, M. J. O’Brien, M. Collard, & S. J. Shennan (Eds.), Mapping our ancestors: Phylogenetic approaches in anthropology and prehistory (pp. 185–208). New York: Aldine Transaction.
Dunnell, R. C. (1989). Aspects of the application of evolutionary theory in archaeology. In C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky (Ed.), Archaeological thought in America (pp. 35–49). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eldredge, N. (2000). Biological and material cultural evolution: Are there any true parallels? Perspectives in Ethology, 13, 113–153.
Eldredge, N. (2006). Forward. In C. Lipo, M. J. O’Brien, M. Collard, & S. J. Shennan (Eds.), Mapping our ancestors: Phylogenetic approaches in anthropology and prehistory (pp. xiii–xvi). New Brunswick: Aldine Transaction.
Eldredge, N. (2009). Material cultural macroevolution. In A. M. Prentiss, I. Kuijt, & J. C. Chatters (Eds.), Macroevolution in human prehistory: Evolutionary theory and processual archaeology (pp. 297–316). New York: Springer.
Eldredge, Niles (2011) Paleontology and Cornets: Thoughts on Material Cultural Evolution. Evolution: Education and Outreach 4:364-373.
Flenniken, J. J., & Raymond, A. W. (1986). Morphological projectile point typology: Replication experimentation and technological analysis. American Antiquity, 51, 603–614.
Goodale, N., Jones, G. T., & Beck, C. (2011). Natural selection and material culture. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 4, 427–434.
Goodrich, J. (2010). Skateboard history time line – 1920s to 2010. http://jimgoodrich.net/skateboardtimeline.htm.
Gould, S. J. (1977). Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge: Belknap Press.
Hammer, Ø., Harper, D. A. T., Ryan, P. D. (2001). PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica, 4(1), 9. http://palaeo-electronica.org/2001_1/past/issue1_01.htm.
Hughes, S. S. (1998). Getting to the point: Evolutionary change in prehistory weaponry. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 5, 345–408.
Jordan, P., & Shennan, S. (2009). Diversity in hunter-gatherer technological traditions: Mapping trajectories of cultural ‘descent with modification’ in Northeast California. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 28, 342–365.
Kemp, T. S. (2007a). The concept of correlated progression as the basis of a model for the evolutionary origin of major new taxa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 274, 1667–1673.
Kemp, T. S. (2007b). The origin of higher taxa: Macroevolutionary processes, and the case of the mammals. Acta Zoologica, 88, 3–22.
Larson, Mary Lou (2012) The Paleoindian to Archaic Transition: The Northwestern Plains and Rocky Mountains. In C. Britt Bousman and Bradley J. Vierra (eds.), From the Pleistocene to the Holocene: Human Organization and Cultural Transformations in Prehistoric North America, pp. 149-170. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.
Lü, J., Unwin, D. M., Jin, X., Liu, Y., & Ji, Q. (2010). Evidence for modular evolution in a long-tailed pterosaur with a pterodactyloid skull. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 277, 383–389.
Maglio, V. J. (1973). Origin and evolution of the elephantidae. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 63, 1–149.
McHenry, H. H. (1994). Tempo and mode in human evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 91, 6780–6786.
O’Brien, M. J., & Lyman, R. L. (2003). Cladistics and archaeology. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
O’Brien, M. J., Darwent, J., & Lyman, R. L. (2001). Cladistics is useful for reconstructing archaeological phylogenies: Paleoindian points from the Southeastern United States. Journal of Archaeological Science, 28, 1115–1136.
Pääbo, S. (2003). The mosaic that is our genome. Nature, 421, 409–412.
Prentiss, A. M., & Kuijt, I. (2012). People of the middle fraser canyon: An archaeological history. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Prentiss, A. M. Cross, G., Foor, T. A., Markle, D., Hogan, M., & Clarke, D. S. (2008). Evolution of a late prehistoric winter village on the interior plateau of British Columbia: Geophysical investigations, radiocarbon dating, and spatial analysis of the bridge river site. American Antiquity, 73, 59–82.
Prentiss, A. M., Goodale, N. B., Harris, L. E., & Crossland, N. (2014). The evolution of the ground slate tool industry at the bridge river site, British Columbia. In N. B. Goodale, & W. Andrefsky Jr. (Eds.), Lithic technological systems: Stone, evolution, and behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (in press).
Prentiss, A. M., Skelton, R. R., Eldredge, N., & Quinn, C. P. (2011). Get rad! The evolution of the skateboard deck. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 4, 379–389.
Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schlosser, G. (2002). Modularity and the units of evolution. Theory in Bioscience, 121, 1–80.
Shott, M. J. (2011). History written in stone: Evolutionary analysis of stone tools in archaeology. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 4, 435–445.
Skelton, R. R., & McHenry, H. M. (1998). Trait list bias and a reappraisal of early hominid phylogeny. Journal of Human Evolution, 34, 109–113.
Stanley, S. M. (1998). Macroevolution: pattern and process. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tehrani, J. (2011). Patterns of evolution in Iranian tribal textiles. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 4, 39–396.
Tehrani, J., & Collard, M. (2002). Investigating cultural evolution through biological phylogenetic analyses of Turkmen textiles. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 21, 443–463.
Weyland, J. (2002). The answer is never: A Skateboarder’s History of the World. New York: Grove Press.
Acknowledgements
We thank Nathalie Gontier for inviting us to participate in the AAA session in San Francisco and to contribute this paper. Bridge River projectile point data derive from excavations funded by the National Science Foundation (BCS-0713013) and conducted via a collaborative partnership between the University of Montana and the Bridge River Band (Xwisten) and St’át’imc Nation. Skateboards in Fig. 1 were drawn by Eric Carlson. We thank Larissa Mendoza Straffon and two peer reviewers for their useful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prentiss, A.M., Walsh, M.J., Skelton, R.R., Mattes, M. (2016). Mosaic Evolution in Cultural Frameworks: Skateboard Decks and Projectile Points. In: Mendoza Straffon, L. (eds) Cultural Phylogenetics. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25928-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25928-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25926-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25928-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)