Cultural Transmission and Stone Tools: A Study of Early Paleoindian Technology in North America

文化传播与石器：北美早期古印第安技术研究

• 批准号: 0413985
• 负责人: Bruce Huckell
• 金额: $ 1.18万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-05-15 至 2006-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0413985&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cultural; Transmission; Stone; Tools; Study

Under the supervision of Dr. Bruce Huckell, Briggs Buchanan will analyze Early Paleoindian stone tool assemblages from sites throughout North America. The Early Paleoindian (ca. 11,500-10,500 B.P.) period represents the initial fluorescence of hunter-gatherer occupation of the New World. Buchanan's analysis will use the types and style of stone tools to define technological traditions that will be used to test hypotheses concerning the rate of migration and adaptation to regional environments and potential routes of colonization or diffusion across the continent.The Early Paleoindian occupation of North America traditionally has been considered as one of rapid colonization and cultural continuity across the diverse Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene environments of the New World. Early Paleoindian fluted projectile points were seen as broadly similar in form and technology across North America, suggesting a stylistic relationship that represents evidence of a residual cultural link connecting distant groups from Nova Scotia to Arizona. Current models, however, emphasize Early Paleoindian regional adaptations, particularly in diet choice and fluted projectile point distributions, suggesting a greater time-depth of occupation in the New World and greater cultural separation of groups living within distinct environmental regions. Buchanan's research investigates these competing hypotheses through the reconstruction of technological traditions, the lineages of technological knowledge that is passed on across generations.Technological traditions are defined by determining the types of tools within assemblages and stylistic traits on projectile points and investigated through cultural transmission models. To explore Early Paleoindian cultural dynamics through technological traditions, data on geographic distance separating assemblages will be used as a proxy for diffusion and paleoenvironmental data will be used as a proxy for convergent or parallel adaptation. The null model assumes that variability relates to distance in cultural descent. The influence of ancestry on technological traditions will be tested using cladistics, a method of determining phylogenetic relationships, and the consistency to which Early Paleoindian technology follows a bifurcating descent pattern.The method of cladistics provides new avenues for understanding human organization and behavior as well as providing a new perspective on change and continuity in material culture. The ability to define and trace cultural lineages in prehistory will have a significant impact upon archaeology, particularly in cases where cultural migration, diffusion, or change are difficult to discern in the record. This method may prove to be invaluable toward the understanding of how human learning systems can be identified and how cultural transmission functions in simple societies; it should also provide an important tool for anthropologists working elsewhere with such problems. This research brings these new perspectives to bear on a contentious issue of great public interest and scientific importance: the earliest period of cultural fluorescence in the New World. Defining the pattern of Early Paleoindian cultural relationships in the initial widespread occupation of North America addresses a topic of global interest in human evolution. The results of this research will help unravel questions concerning the adaptive processes of the last major human migration of a previously uninhabited continent.This project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.

在布鲁斯哈克尔博士的监督下，布里格斯布坎南将分析来自北美各地的早期古印第安石器组合。 古印度早期（The Early PaleoIndian）11，500 - 10，500 B.P.）这一时期代表了狩猎采集者占领新大陆的最初荧光。 布坎南的分析将使用石器工具的类型和风格来定义技术传统，这些技术传统将用于测试关于移民和适应区域环境的速度以及在整个大陆上殖民或扩散的潜在路线的假设。新大陆的全新世早期环境。 早期的古印第安人有凹槽的射弹尖在形式和技术上被认为在整个北美都是大致相似的，这表明了一种风格上的关系，代表了一种残余的文化联系的证据，将遥远的群体从新斯科舍省连接到亚利桑那州。 然而，目前的模型强调早期古印第安人的区域适应，特别是在饮食选择和凹槽投射点分布，这表明在新世界的占领更大的时间深度和更大的文化分离的群体生活在不同的环境区域。 布坎南的研究通过技术传统的重建来调查这些相互竞争的假设，技术传统是世代相传的技术知识的谱系。技术传统是通过确定组合中的工具类型和投射点的风格特征来定义的，并通过文化传播模型进行调查。 通过技术传统探索早期古印度文化动态，地理距离分离组合的数据将被用作扩散的代理和古环境数据将被用作收敛或平行适应的代理。 零模型假设变异性与文化血统的距离有关。 血统对技术传统的影响将使用分支系统学（一种确定系统发育关系的方法）以及早期古印度技术遵循分叉血统模式的一致性来测试。分支系统学方法为理解人类组织和行为提供了新的途径，并提供了关于物质文化变革和连续性的新视角。 界定和追溯史前文化谱系的能力将对考古学产生重大影响，特别是在文化迁移、扩散或变化难以在记录中辨别的情况下。 这种方法可能被证明是非常宝贵的理解人类学习系统如何可以识别和文化传播如何在简单的社会功能;它也应该为人类学家提供一个重要的工具，在其他地方工作与这些问题。 这项研究带来了这些新的观点，以承担一个有争议的问题，极大的公众利益和科学的重要性：在新世界的文化荧光的最早期。 在北美最初的广泛占领中定义早期古印第安文化关系的模式解决了人类进化中全球感兴趣的话题。 这项研究的结果将有助于解决有关人类最近一次大规模迁移到一个以前无人居住的大陆的适应过程的问题，该项目还将有助于培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。