Abstract
Ceramics are quintessential indicators of human culture and its evolution across generations of social learners. Cultural transmission and evolution theory frequently emphasizes apprentices’ need for accurate imitation (high-fidelity copying) of their mentors’ actions. However, the ensuing prediction of standardized fashioning patterns within communities of practice has not been directly addressed in handicraft traditions such as pottery throwing. To fill this gap, we analysed variation in vessel morphogenesis amongst and within traditional potters from culturally different workshops producing for the same market. We demonstrate that, for each vessel type studied, individual potters reliably followed distinctive routes through morphological space towards a much-less-variable common final shape. Our results indicate that mastering the pottery handicraft does not result from accurately reproducing a particular model behaviour specific to the community’s cultural tradition. We provide evidence that, at the level of the elementary clay-deforming gestures, individual learning rather than simple imitation is required for the acquisition of a complex motor skill such as throwing pottery.
Highlights
Social learning allows cultural traditions to persist over generations [1]
While presented as a general principle, to our knowledge the operation of high-fidelity copying has so far not been experimentally explored in behavioural traditions involving complex motor skills such as pottery and other handicrafts
We explore two alternative hypotheses: (1) if each potter learns by high-fidelity copying of a model, throughout the forming process the degree of among-potter variation should be relatively small and of the same order as within-potter variation; (2) if each potter learns by deliberate practicing, the degree of among-potter variation should be greater than within-potter variation and this pattern should be strongest at the earlier stages of morphogenesis, with among-potter variations decreasing as the vessel nears its final form
Summary
Social learning allows cultural traditions to persist over generations [1]. Accurate imitation of their accomplished elders’ way of doing, commonly denoted high-fidelity copying, is argued to allow learners to “ratchet up” existing knowledge, thereby reducing or eliminating the need to rediscover an effective way of solving each problem [6]. While presented as a general principle, to our knowledge the operation of high-fidelity copying has so far not been experimentally explored in behavioural traditions involving complex motor skills such as pottery and other handicrafts.
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