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

在布鲁斯·哈克尔博士的监督下，布里格斯·布坎南将分析北美各地遗址的早期古印度石器组合。古印度早期(约11,500-10,500 B.P.)这一时期代表了新大陆狩猎-采集占领的最初荧光。布坎南的分析将使用石器的类型和风格来定义技术传统，这些传统将被用来检验关于移民和适应地区环境的速度以及潜在的殖民或跨大陆扩散路线的假设。传统上，古印度人对北美的早期占领被认为是新大陆各种晚更新世/早全新世环境中的快速殖民和文化延续之一。早期的古印第安人凹槽投射点在形式和技术上在北美各地被视为大致相似，这表明一种风格关系代表着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，目前的模型强调古印度早期的区域适应，特别是在饮食选择和凹槽投射点分布方面，这表明新大陆的占领时间更深，生活在不同环境区域的群体在文化上更大的分离。布坎南的研究通过重建技术传统来研究这些相互竞争的假设，技术传统是通过确定装配中的工具类型和投射点上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古印度早期的文化动态，地理距离分离的集合体数据将被用作扩散的代理，古环境数据将被用作汇聚或并行适应的代理。零模型假设变异性与文化血统中的距离有关。祖先对技术传统的影响将用分支学来检验，分支学是一种确定系统发育关系的方法，以及古印度早期技术遵循分叉下降模式的一致性。分支学方法为理解人类组织和行为提供了新的途径，并为物质文化的变化和连续性提供了新的视角。确定和追踪史前文化谱系的能力将对考古学产生重大影响，特别是在记录中难以辨别文化迁移、传播或变化的情况下。这种方法可能被证明对理解人类学习系统如何被识别以及文化传播如何在简单社会中发挥作用非常有价值；它也应该为人类学家在其他地方研究这类问题提供一个重要的工具。这项研究将这些新的视角应用到一个具有重大公共利益和科学重要性的有争议的问题上：新大陆最早的文化荧光时期。在北美最初被广泛占领时，确定早期古印度文化关系的模式，解决了一个全球对人类进化感兴趣的话题。这项研究的结果将有助于揭开有关人类在一个以前无人居住的大陆的最后一次大规模迁徙的适应过程的问题。该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.