More on Clovis Learning: Individual-level Processes Aggregate to Form Population-level Patterns

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ABSTRACTThe Clovis techno-complex has figured prominently in American archaeology since the 1930s, when fluted stone weapon tips and other tools were found alongside the remains of late Pleistocene fauna in eastern New Mexico. Given the lack of fluted projectile points in the Old World, it appears certain that the Clovis techno-complex emerged in the New World, south of the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets. The successful marriage of learning models grounded in evolutionary theory and modern analytical methods has yielded significant results in terms of what we know about the rapid spread of Clovis across North America. As more researchers become involved in applying learning models, however, there needs to be both consistency in how concepts and terms – selection and drift, for example – are used and clarity over how the results of small-scale processes, when taken in the aggregate, can create the population-level patterns seen in the archaeological record.