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Anthropological Interpretation of Chaînes Opératoires

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Ceramics and Society

Abstract

Chapter 6 summarizes the scope of the technological approach for interpreting the synchronic and diachronic variability of technical traditions and is a culmination of the analyses presented in the previous chapters. It shows how the chaîne opératoire concept is powerful for modeling techno- and socioeconomic systems and for analyzing cultural lineages and their evolution through the elementary and universal mechanism of transmission. In the same way, it shows how this concept is essential for appraising the history of techniques and the underlying evolutionary forces using theoretical frameworks combining the singularity of historical scenarios and anthropological regularities, Francophone and Anglophone approaches.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Non-published observations from V. Roux and M.-A. Courty

  2. 2.

    This work is the result of a Marie Curie Actions research project (European Commission “Intra-European Marie Curie Research Fellowship”) entitled “European Bronze Age Cultures and technical evolution: a phylogenetic approach.”

  3. 3.

    Ties can be strong or weak. In analytical sociology, “strong ties describe frequently activated relationships (such as family/kin ties) whereas weak ties are used to describe infrequently accessed connections (acquaintances)” (Collar et al. 2015, p. 23).

  4. 4.

    This term “population structure’ refers to “instances where individual subpopulations/groups exhibit low within and high between variability” (Shennan et al. 2015: 103).

  5. 5.

    see A. Gallay on the notion of tendency, http://www.archeo-gallay.ch/7a_Inedits.html, http://www.archeo-gallay.ch/7a_Lectures17.html

  6. 6.

    “A multi-agent system is made up of a set of n elementary units (named “automata” or “agents”). The researcher can program both the behavior of these units, either singly or grouped into subsets, and the way the units (or group of units) interact in time. The aim of the technique is to observe how the system of interaction between agents evolves and its final “emerging” configuration” (Manzo 2007, 49).

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  1. Préhistoire & Technologie, UMR 7055, French National Centre for Scientific Research, Nanterre, France

    Valentine Roux

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Roux, V. (2019). Anthropological Interpretation of Chaînes Opératoires . In: Ceramics and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03973-8_6

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