Abstract
Space plays an important role in the transfer of information in most societies that archaeologists study. Social networks that mediate learning and the transmission of cultural information are situated in spatial environments. This paper uses an abstract agent-based model to represent the transmission of the value of a single stylistic variable among groups linked together within a social network, the spatial structure of which is varied using a few simple parameters. The properties of the networks are shown to clearly affect both the overall amount of variability that is produced by the cultural transmission process and the spatial organization of that variability. the relationships between network structure, network properties, and assemblage variability in this simple model are patterned and predictable. This suggests that changes in the spatial structure of social networks may have important implications for interpreting patterns of artifact variability in large-scale archaeological assemblages.
Highlights
1.1 All human societies are comprised of individuals connected to one another by overlapping arrays of social ties that together constitute a social network
5.1 This paper adds additional elements to the basic view that differences in how information is transferred in a cultural system might have outcomes that we can observe in patterns of variability in material culture
Cultural transmission provides a point of articulation between social networks and material culture
Summary
1.1 All human societies are comprised of individuals connected to one another by overlapping arrays of social ties that together constitute a social network. Social networks are emergent phenomena that both influence and are produced by the behavior of individuals (Barnes 1972; Blau and Scott 1962; Radcliffe-Brown 1940). They channel information, people, genes, and resources and can be used to define the extent of a social system. In neither case is information transfer random: interactions among individuals are mediated by social ties. Transfer of both kinds of information is subject to human error, which is a source of variability in material culture. We can view archaeological artifacts as the material residues of spatially-situated, network-mediated systems of social learning and information exchange
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