Social influence is one of the most important processes in human social interaction. Very often in human social interaction, influence is assimilative in that individuals become more similar to others they interact with. Nevertheless, cultural differences continue to remain in many realms of human life, for example, in the form of technological boundaries. Research on social influence points to a range of possible reasons for persistent cultural diversity, but there is much less clarity about the interplay of various factors and conditions for cultural influence with fundamental processes of social interaction at the micro-level. In this article, I show how agent-based computational modeling can be used as an approach for unraveling the complex interplay between simple first principles of interpersonal social interaction and emergent societal outcomes. I give a brief overview illustrating some of the main approaches agent-based modelers have developed in recent decades to understand conditions and processes of the emergence of cultural diversity. Models will be discussed that generate mainly cultural consensus as long-term behavior, but also models that generate clustering of cultural attitudes in geographical or social space, and models that imply cultural polarization with sharp cultural boundaries between emergent factions. It will be discussed how model dynamics depend on further assumptions, for example about random events, or the scaling of cultural attitudes, and what are further developments in the literature, possible future directions and challenges for the application of computational agent-based modeling in archeological research on cultural boundaries.

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Between Monoculture and Cultural Polarization: Agent-based Models of the Interplay of Social Influence and Cultural Diversity

abstract:The article examines changes in metalworking tools during the second and early first millennia BCE as a reflection of broader cultural and political developments. It is assumed that producers who consistently choose a similar set of production actions belong to the same social and cultural group, and that technological choices are notoriously conservative. Therefore, changes in these choices are significant and could reflect broader societal developments, such as migrations and increasing political control. Based on the development or changes in the components of the metalworking tool kit of crucibles, pot bellows, and tyères, I identify several such changes or turning points, particularly during the transitions from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age I to Iron Age IIA. I argue that while changes during the former transition reflect the influx of foreigners, changes during the latter transition are also due to considerable internal political change.

Crucibles, Tuyères, and Bellows in a Longue Durée Perspective: Aspects of Technological Style

In this article, we question how new technological traits can penetrate cohesive social groups and spread. Based on ethnographic narratives and following studies in sociology, the hypothesis is that not only weak ties are important for linking otherwise unconnected groups and introducing new techniques but also that expertise is required. In order to test this hypothesis, we carried out a set of field experiments in northern India where the kiln has been adopted recently. Our goal was to measure the degree of expertise of the potters distributed between early and late adopters of the kiln. Our results are discussed in the light of oral interviews. Our conclusions suggest that expertise is a necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition for weak ties to act as bridges and thereby for new techniques to spread. As an example, they explain how turntables could have been adopted by potters from the northern Levant during the third millennium BC.

Weak Ties and Expertise: Crossing Technological Boundaries

The chaines operatoires underlying the manufacture of objects are good proxies for studying social groups and how cultural traits are transmitted and modified through the learning process. With the rise of evolutionary archaeology, the evolution of ceramic vessels can be modeled by using cladistics to elaborate kinship relationships between different taxa on the basis of shared derived character states. Here the modeling applies to ceramic fashioning from the European Middle Bronze Age (France and the United Kingdom). The aim is to assess the nature of the evolution and the relationships between three main cultures—in southern England, Normandy, and in the center-west of France. The cladistics analysis highlights that the ceramic traditions largely result from a process of phylogenesis—a result of descent with modification from an ancestral assemblage—rooted in the Early Bronze Age, suggesting a common origin for the Trevisker/Deverel-Rimbury and French Atlantic technical traditions. On the other hand, the Norman appears to be related to the Duffaits tradition, but to the exclusion of the Trevisker/Deverel-Rimbury traditions. This study supports the theoretical premise that some technical sequences are more stable than others. The evolution of sequences requiring motor habits, such as shaping, stabilized fairly quickly, unlike the finishing operations that continued to diverge throughout the Bronze Age. This study suggests that cladistics based on the description of the ceramic material in terms of chaines operatoires is a useful tool for studying cultural change.

Modeling the Evolution of Ceramic Traditions Through a Phylogenetic Analysis of the Chaînes Opératoires : the European Bronze Age as a Case Study

In this paper, I focus on two issues: (1) the variables for modeling the relational structure of a society and (2) the use of models for explaining evolutionary processes. I argue first that, contrary to stylistic traits which are the main attributes analyzed by models exploring changes in material culture through time, technological traditions are meaningful variables for linking sites over space and time and therefore for bringing to light the relational structures of societies. Indeed, at the difference to stylistic traits, their transmission requires social learning with a tutor usually selected within one’s social group, signaling thereby individuals belonging to the same social group and local network. Once the relational structure of a society is highlighted, I argue that explanation of evolution processes requires reference sociological models. The validation of the archeological interpretation lies in both the analogical operation and the founding of the reference model. These points are illustrated with a case study, the Late Chalcolithic of the southern Levant (4500–3900 cal. BC).

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Modeling the Relational Structure of Ancient Societies through the Chaîne opératoire: The Late Chalcolithic Societies of the Southern Levant as a Case Study

Persisting technological boundaries: Social interactions, cognitive correlations and polarization

Chez les Gewada du sud de l’Ethiopie, le pogolho (chef coutumier) decede, qui etait aussi un hasale (heros), est enterre, au milieu d’un bois d’epineux, dans une tombe en puits. Celle-ci est recouverte d’une plateforme circulaire et signalee par une petite pierre plantee dans le sol. Quelques semaines plus tard a lieu une ceremonie, faite de chants et de danses, qui conduit a dresser une premiere stele sur la tombe du defunt, puis une autre sur une aire reservee dans le prolongement de trois autres elevees dans le passe en l’honneur de trois pogolho. C’est a la phase commemorative des funerailles de ce personnage important, ponctuee de differents rituels, que nous avons pu assister. Les observations rapportees dans cet article sont le fait d’archeologues qui avaient la l’opportunite de decrire le contexte et les modalites d’erection de monolithes par l’une des rares populations au monde a poursuivre cette pratique encore de nos jours. Le role et l’importance attribues par les Gewada a ces steles, seules ou alignees, incitent a une grande prudence pour interpreter celles du passe, les menhirs europeens en particulier, dont on ignore la raison d’etre.

Anne-Lise Goujon

Papers

Persisting technological boundaries: Social interactions, cognitive correlations and polarization

Ériger des pierres pour certains défunts en pays gewada (Éthiopie)