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

在Bruce Huckell博士的指导下，Briggs Buchanan将分析来自北美各地的早期古印第安石器组合。早期古印第安人（约公元前11,500-10,500）时期代表了新世界狩猎采集者占领的最初荧光。布坎南的分析将使用石器的类型和风格来定义技术传统，这些传统将被用来测试有关迁移速度和对区域环境的适应以及在整个大陆上殖民或扩散的潜在路线的假设。早期古印第安人对北美的占领传统上被认为是跨越新世界不同的晚更新世/全新世早期环境的快速殖民和文化连续性之一。早期古印第安人的凹槽抛射点在北美各地的形式和技术上大致相似，这表明了一种风格上的关系，它代表了从新斯科舍省到亚利桑那州的遥远群体之间残留的文化联系的证据。然而，目前的模型强调早期古印第安人的区域适应性，特别是在饮食选择和有凹槽的抛射点分布方面，这表明生活在不同环境区域的群体在新大陆有更长的职业时间深度和更大的文化分离。布坎南的研究通过重建技术传统，即代代相传的技术知识谱系，来调查这些相互矛盾的假设。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研究。为了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，古环境数据将被用作趋同或平行适应的代理。零模型假定变异与文化血统的距离有关。祖先对技术传统的影响将使用分支学来测试，这是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支血统模式的一致性。分支学的方法为理解人类的组织和行为提供了新的途径，也为物质文化的变化和连续性提供了新的视角。定义和追踪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、传播或变化难以从记录中辨别的情况下。这种方法对于理解如何识别人类学习系统以及文化传播如何在简单社会中发挥作用可能是非常宝贵的；它还应该为在其他地方研究此类问题的人类学家提供一个重要工具。这项研究将这些新的观点带入了一个具有重大公共利益和科学重要性的有争议的问题：新世界最早的文化荧光时期。定义早期古印第安人在北美最初广泛占领时期的文化关系模式，解决了一个全球关注的人类进化问题。这项研究的结果将有助于解开有关人类最后一次大规模迁移到以前无人居住的大陆的适应过程的问题。这个项目还将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

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.