Production bias in cultural evolution: An examination of cubic dice variation in experimental and archaeological contexts

Abstract

Similar artifact function and conformism to social norms are two models commonly proposed to explain why ancient people shared a particular form of material culture. We propose an additional model for explaining such similarity, production bias, which focuses on interactions between raw materials and the production of material culture. By way of modern replication experiments and a survey of ancient examples, we use dice to exemplify production bias and discuss how it can be recognized in the archaeological record. Although there are 15 possible configurations for cubic dice, all of equal function, only three are common in the archaeological record. Replication experiments show that one is the result of production bias, and is differentially produced by novice dice-makers. The other two are the byproduct of conformist cultural transmission processes. A similar result holds for dot patterns, or how dots are placed with respect to one another to represent a particular number.