The Flow of Culture: Assessing the Role of Rivers in the Inter-community Transmission of Material Traditions in the Upper Amazon
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the influence of river networks on patterns of inter-community material culture variation by utilizing spatial, linguistic, and material culture data from linguistically diverse peoples of the Upper Amazon region, using an ethnographic dataset recorded during the early twentieth century.
Abstract: Rivers are known to play a role in human subsistence, economic, transport, and communication dynamics in many regions of the world. However, there has been little systematic investigation of how landscape features such as rivers might structure cultural transmission, such that this has a direct influence on cross-community patterns of artifactual variation. Here, we statistically explore the influence of river networks on patterns of inter-community material culture variation by utilizing spatial, linguistic, and material culture data from linguistically diverse peoples of the Upper Amazon region, using an ethnographic dataset recorded during the early twentieth century. When the geographic (“straight line”) distances among groups were controlled for, our statistical analysis found no relationship between inter-group material culture patterns and linguistic variation. We did, however, find a statistical relationship between the geographic distances among ethnolinguistic groups and their overall similarity as measured by material culture. This suggests that geographic distance is a more important factor in influencing pathways of cultural transmission among groups than language across the region. Most importantly, however, our analysis also found a significant relationship between riverine distances among ethnolinguistic groups and their material culture patterns. This relationship remained statistically significant even when taking both language variation and geographic (straight line) distances into account. Hence, this result strongly supports the hypothesis that rivers are having an influence on pathways of cultural transmission, and that they ultimately contribute to the structure of material culture patterns observed across the region. Accordingly, river distances and other landscape features may need to be more closely considered in archaeological studies when attempting to understand cultural transmission pathways influencing the spatial distribution of artifactual variation across communities.
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TL;DR: An innovative methodology that combines techniques to derive remote sensing time series products, improve census processing with dasymetric mapping, and combine GWR and random forest to derive local variables importance is presented, demonstrating the benefits of integrating remote sensing–derived products and socioeconomic data to understand coupled socioecological systems more from a local than a global scale.
Abstract: The Tropical Andes region includes biodiversity hotspots of high conservation priority whose management strategies depend on the analysis of forest dynamics drivers (FDDs). These depend on complex social and ecological interactions that manifest on different space-time scales and are commonly evaluated through regression analysis of multivariate datasets. However, processing such datasets is challenging, especially when time series are used and inconsistencies in data collection complicate their integration. Moreover, regression analysis in FDD characterization has been criticized for failing to capture spatial variability; therefore, alternatives such as geographically weighted regression (GWR) have been proposed, but their sensitivity to multicollinearity has not yet been solved. In this scenario, we present an innovative methodology that combines techniques to: 1) derive remote sensing time series products; 2) improve census processing with dasymetric mapping; 3) combine GWR and random forest (RF) to derive local variables importance; and 4) report results based in a clustering and hypothesis testing. We applied this methodology in the northwestern Ecuadorian Amazon, a highly heterogeneous region characterized by different active fronts of deforestation and reforestation, within the time period 2000-2010. Our objective was to identify linkages between these processes and validate the potential of the proposed methodology. Our findings indicate that land-use intensity proxies can be extracted from remote sensing time series, while intercensal analysis can be facilitated by calculating population density maps. Moreover, our implementation of GWR with RF achieved accurate predictions above the 74% using the out-of-bag samples, demonstrating that derived RF features can be used to construct hypothesis and discuss forest change drivers with more detailed information. In the other hand, our analysis revealed contrasting effects between deforestation and reforestation for variables related to suitability to agriculture and accessibility to its facilities, which is also reflected according patch size, land cover and population dynamics patterns. This approach demonstrates the benefits of integrating remote sensing-derived products and socioeconomic data to understand coupled socioecological systems more from a local than a global scale.
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, three cultural datasets (fishing practices, clothing styles, and funerary behaviors) were statistically examined for evidence of their relative extent of cross-community transmission, relating to contrasts in function and the contextual and physical visibility of these practices.
9 citations
TL;DR: A novel method for phylogenetic reconstruction using dynamic community detection that explicitly accounts for transmission between lineages is proposed and it is suggested that electronic music diversity has increased between 1975 and 1999 and never become fully isolated from one another.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of geographic spacing in explaining the among-tribe distribution of beadwork attributes on the High Plains during the historic period is reexamined using a dataset describing motifs, beadwork techniques, and additional decorative features.
Abstract: Understanding the patterns that result from intercommunity contact has long been an interest in anthropology. Although linguistically diverse, peoples of the Historic-period Great Plains came into contact through a diversity of means, both malevolent and benevolent in form. Accordingly, the idea that the Plains was an environment that led to high degrees of cultural interchange has long been held. Recently, it has been proposed that the among-tribe distribution of some material culture patterns, such as beadwork patterns on moccasins, is explicable in geographic terms. That is, geographically proximate groups exchanged cultural features at higher rates than those more geographically distant from each other. While logically sound, this pattern would only emerge at statistically significant levels if selective biases were not operating to prevent the “free flow” of information. However, there are viable and well-documented reasons why decorative features may be subject to such cultural selection. Moreover, previous assessments of the geographic hypothesis only examined the general layout of beadwork designs, rather than more detailed features such as motifs, beadwork techniques, and other decorative features. Here, the role of geographic spacing in explaining the among-tribe distribution of beadwork attributes on the High Plains during the Historic period is reexamined. A dataset describing motifs, beadwork techniques, and additional decorative features is used. These data are subjected to several sets of statistical analysis. The role of linguistic affinities is also considered. The results show that geographic “isolation by distance” does indeed explain the distribution of beadwork attributes among these ethnolinguistically diverse tribes, with no equivalent statistical effect for language patterns. In turn, these results highlight the role of specific processes operating among these communities. These results also underline the value of ethnographic museum collections for addressing the role of social processes among the people responsible for their manufacture, which can have anthropological relevance over much broader scales.
8 citations
Cites background from "The Flow of Culture: Assessing the ..."
...…the strong effect that geographic distance can have on cultural similarity, to the extent that geographic spacing can sometimes predict cultural similarity to a greater extent than language similarities (e.g., Welsch et al. 1992; Jordan and Shennan 2003; Jordan 2015; Schillinger and Lycett 2018)....
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01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: A Python 3.7 program that was specifically developed for river networks and implements multiple single-source (one to one) weighted Dijkstra shortest path calculations, on a list of provided source and target nodes, and returns the route geometry, the total distance between each source and targets, and the total upstream and downstream distances for each shortest path.
Abstract: Vector based shortest path analysis in geographic information system (GIS) is well established for road networks. Even though these network algorithms can be applied to river layers, they do not generally consider the direction of flow. This paper presents a Python 3.7 program (upstream_downstream_shortests_path_dijkstra.py) that was specifically developed for river networks. It implements multiple single-source (one to one) weighted Dijkstra shortest path calculations, on a list of provided source and target nodes, and returns the route geometry, the total distance between each source and target node, and the total upstream and downstream distances for each shortest path. The end result is similar to what would be obtained by an “all-pairs” weighted Dijkstra shortest path algorithm. Contrary to an “all-pairs” Dijkstra, the algorithm only operates on the source and target nodes that were specified by the user and not on all of the nodes contained within the graph. For efficiency, only the upper distance matrix is returned (e.g., distance from node A to node B), while the lower distance matrix (e.g., distance from nodes B to A) is not. The program is intended to be used in a multiprocessor environment and relies on Python’s multiprocessing package.
6 citations
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: PAST (PAleontological STatistics) as discussed by the authors is a simple-to-use software package for executing a range of standard numerical analysis and operations used in quantitative paleontology.
Abstract: A comprehensive, but simple-to-use software package for executing a range of standard numerical analysis and operations used in quantitative paleontology has been developed. The program, called PAST (PAleontological STatistics), runs on standard Windows computers and is available free of charge. PAST integrates spreadsheet-type data entry with univariate and multivariate statistics, curve fitting, timeseries analysis, data plotting, and simple phylogenetic analysis. Many of the functions are specific to paleontology and ecology, and these functions are not found in standard, more extensive, statistical packages. PAST also includes fourteen case studies (data files and exercises) illustrating use of the program for paleontological problems, making it a complete educational package for courses in quantitative methods.
19,926 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The technic to be given below for imparting statistical validity to the procedures already in vogue can be viewed as a generalized form of regression with possible useful application to problems arising in quite different contexts.
Abstract: The problem of identifying subtle time-space clustering of disease, as may be occurring in leukemia, is described and reviewed. Published approaches, generally associated with studies of leukemia, not dependent on knowledge of the underlying population for their validity, are directed towards identifying clustering by establishing a relationship between the temporal and the spatial separations for the n ( n - 1)/2 possible pairs which can be formed from the n observed cases of disease. Here it is proposed that statistical power can be improved by applying a reciprocal transform to these separations. While a permutational approach can give valid probability levels for any observed association, for reasons of practicability, it is suggested that the observed association be tested relative to its permutational variance. Formulas and computational procedures for doing so are given.
While the distance measures between points represent symmetric relationships subject to mathematical and geometric regularities, the variance formula developed is appropriate for arbitrary relationships. Simplified procedures are given for the case of symmetric and skew-symmetric relationships. The general procedure is indicated as being potentially useful in other situations as, for example, the study of interpersonal relationships. Viewing the procedure as a regression approach, the possibility for extending it to nonlinear and multivariate situations is suggested.
Other aspects of the problem and of the procedure developed are discussed.
Similarly, pure temporal clustering can be identified by a study of incidence rates in periods of widespread epidemics. In point of fact, many epidemics of communicable diseases are somewhat local in nature and so these do actually constitute temporal-spatial clusters. For leukemia and similar diseases in which cases seem to arise substantially at random rather than as clear-cut epidemics, it is necessary to devise sensitive and efficient procedures for detecting any nonrandom component of disease occurrence.
Various ingenious procedures which statisticians have developed for the detection of disease clustering are reviewed here. These procedures can be generalized so as to increase their statistical validity and efficiency. The technic to be given below for imparting statistical validity to the procedures already in vogue can be viewed as a generalized form of regression with possible useful application to problems arising in quite different contexts.
11,408 citations
TL;DR: The Mantel test as discussed by the authors is one of the most widely used matrix correlation measures in population biology and has been widely applied in geography and psychometrics (Hubert, 1979a, b).
Abstract: It is often necessary in population biology to compare two sets of distance measures. These measures can be based on genetic markers, morphological traits, geographic separation, ecological divergence, and so on. The distance measures can take various forms and frequently have unknown distributional properties. Many different procedures have been developed to compare the correspondence of one set of distances with another set. Prominent among them are the: (1) matrix correlation techniques of Sokal and Rohlf (1962), and Sneath and Sokal (1973); (2) networkmatching techniques of Spielman (1973); (3) matrix dilation and rotation techniques of Gower (1971) and of Schonemann and Carrol (1970); and (4) smallest-space techniques of Lingoes (1965) and Guttman (1968). Each of these strategies has strong points, but all suffer from a difficulty in assessing the statistical significance of attained correspondence. The problem is that a set of all possible pairwise distances between k units (populations, taxa, habitats, etc.) cannot be independent. More recently, a test of matrix correspondence-originally developed by Mantel (1967) and widely applied in geography (Hubert and Golledge, 1982) and psychometrics (Hubert, 1979a, b)-has caught the attention of population biologists (Sokal, 1979; Sokal et al., 1980; Douglas and Endler, 1982; Dow and Cheverud, 1985; Schnell et al., 1985, 1986; Sokal et al., 1986, 1987; O'Brien, 1987; Smouse and Wood, 1987). Attractions of the Mantel procedure are its wide applicability and computational simplicity. Mantel (1967) presented a formal analysis of matrix correspondence based on the assumption of asymptotic normality for a particular test criterion. Later workers (Mielke et al., 1981) developed more general procedures for Mantel statistics that assume a Pearson Type III distributional form. The most widely used evaluation procedure, however, involves the construction of a null distribution by Monte Carlo randomization, whereby one of the matrices is held rigid and the other has its rows and corresponding columns randomly permuted (Cliff and Ord, 1981). Dietz (1983) evaluated the Mantel test as one of several permutational tests for association between distance matrices. When dimensions of two matrices are small (say K ' 7), it is customary to evaluate the Mantel test criterion for all K! equally likely permutations. If K is large, then a large number of random permutations are sampled with replacement. Although the test has been useful in its present form, there are some simple modifications and extensions that would encourage even wider deployment in population work. Our purpose here is to sketch these changes and to illustrate them with an example drawn from the Yanomama Indians of lowland South America.
2,112 citations
Woods Hole Research Center1, National Institute of Amazonian Research2, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária3, University of São Paulo4, State Street Corporation5, Universidade Federal do Acre6, University of Brasília7, Columbia University8, United States Forest Service9, Harvard University10, University of Maryland, College Park11, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais12
TL;DR: Signs of a transition to a disturbance-dominated regime include changing energy and water cycles in the southern and eastern portions of the Amazon basin.
Abstract: Agricultural expansion and climate variability have become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon basin. Recent studies have demonstrated considerable resilience of Amazonian forests to moderate annual drought, but they also show that interactions between deforestation, fire and drought potentially lead to losses of carbon storage and changes in regional precipitation patterns and river discharge. Although the basin-wide impacts of land use and drought may not yet surpass the magnitude of natural variability of hydrologic and biogeochemical cycles, there are some signs of a transition to a disturbance-dominated regime. These signs include changing energy and water cycles in the southern and eastern portions of the Amazon basin.
921 citations
TL;DR: A new version of PASSaGE, rewritten from the ground up, has now been released and is available for download and provides an excellent platform for both scientific analysis and classroom training.
Abstract: Summary
1. Spatial analysis has become increasingly popular in the biological sciences, particularly in disciplines such as landscape ecology and landscape genetics. However, many statistical functions for performing spatial analysis are not readily available (except in the most limited manner) in common, easy-to-use statistical packages or geographic information systems (GIS) software.
2. Over the last decade, the software package Pattern Analysis, Spatial Statistics and Geographic Exegesis (PASSaGE) has been popular tool for conducting spatial statistics. PASSaGE is completely free and has a user-friendly graphical user interface. A new version of PASSaGE, rewritten from the ground up, has now been released and is available for download.
3. PASSaGE 2 is significantly more user friendly than the original release and provides an excellent platform for both scientific analysis and classroom training. PASSaGE 2 includes a broad array of spatial statistical analyses not commonly found in other software packages or GIS software, all in an easy-to-use framework. It includes support for one-, two- and three-dimensional spatial analysis, including a number of unique and newly developed approaches.
727 citations