математические модели в археологии, описывающие сложность культуры
Критика двух основных математических моделей, старающихся описать сложность культуры как функцию от размера популяции. Критика этих моделей, конечно, интересна и сама по себе, но идея описания археологических данных с помощью математических моделей мне нравится.
Статья сравнивает две модели и предлагает способы их улучшить.
Статья в свободном доступе.
Подобные методы можно применять не только в археологии. Интересен кусок дискуссии, в которой пытаются дать формальное описание культурной сложности (cultural complexity).
Конечно, пока это относительно примитивно, но тем не менее опирается на некоторые измеряемые параметры, определение усложняется и наполняется деталями.
http://www.pnas.org/content/113/16/E2241.abstract.html?etoc
Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity.
Krist Vaesen, Mark Collard, Richard Cosgrove, and Wil Roebroeks
Абстракт
Demography is increasingly being invoked to account for features of the archaeological record, such as the technological conservatism of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, and cultural loss in Holocene Tasmania. Such explanations are commonly justified in relation to population dynamic models developed by Henrich [Henrich J (2004) Am Antiq 69:197-214] and Powell et al. [Powell A, et al. (2009) Science 324(5932):1298-1301], which appear to demonstrate that population size is the crucial determinant of cultural complexity. Here, we show that these models fail in two important respects. First, they only support a relationship between demography and culture in implausible conditions. Second, their predictions conflict with the available archaeological and ethnographic evidence. We conclude that new theoretical and empirical research is required to identify the factors that drove the changes in cultural complexity that are documented by the archaeological record.
"Henrich (11) developed his model to explain a key part of Jones’ (21) interpretation of the archaeological record of Tasmania. Jones (21) argued that Tasmania experienced a slow cultural decline from the beginning of the Holocene until contact with Europeans. Henrich (11) avers that the decrease in the complexity of the Tasmanians’ technology has to do with their isolation from mainland Australia following the rise of sea levels 12-10 kya. Henrich (11) contends that the latter event would have reduced the pool of interacting social learners, and that this reduction would have led to reduced cultural complexity. At the heart of Henrich’s model (11) is a process of cultural transmission we will call “Best.” In Best, each individual in the older generation has a skill level that expresses how proficient he or she is at performing a given skill. Individuals in the younger generation learn the skill from the most skilled member of the older generation, but this copying process is inaccurate. Consequently, members of the younger generation will, on average, be worse at the skill than members of the older generation. It is at this point that strength in numbers becomes important: Larger populations have a higher probability of giving rise to learners who achieve a level of skill as high as or even higher than the level of skill of the most skilled member of the older generation."
...
"Powell et al. (12) presented a revised version of Henrich’s model (11). Their goal was to explain the regional variation in the timing of the Upper Paleolithic transition, which they characterize as the “substantial increase in technological and cultural complexity” during the Late Pleistocene. The key difference from Henrich’s model (11) is that Powell et al.’s model (12) does not use Best. Instead, their model is based on a two-stage transmission process. Learners first undergo vertical transmission (i.e., they learn from their same-sex biological parent). They then have the opportunity to improve their skill level by selecting another “cultural parent” proportional to the parent’s skill level. We will refer to this transmission process as “Payoff.” In simulations of their model, Powell et al. (12) obtained results that are equivalent to the results yielded by Henrich’s model (11)."
Статья сравнивает две модели и предлагает способы их улучшить.
Статья в свободном доступе.
Подобные методы можно применять не только в археологии. Интересен кусок дискуссии, в которой пытаются дать формальное описание культурной сложности (cultural complexity).
Конечно, пока это относительно примитивно, но тем не менее опирается на некоторые измеряемые параметры, определение усложняется и наполняется деталями.
http://www.pnas.org/content/113/16/E2241.abstract.html?etoc
Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity.
Krist Vaesen, Mark Collard, Richard Cosgrove, and Wil Roebroeks
Абстракт
Demography is increasingly being invoked to account for features of the archaeological record, such as the technological conservatism of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, and cultural loss in Holocene Tasmania. Such explanations are commonly justified in relation to population dynamic models developed by Henrich [Henrich J (2004) Am Antiq 69:197-214] and Powell et al. [Powell A, et al. (2009) Science 324(5932):1298-1301], which appear to demonstrate that population size is the crucial determinant of cultural complexity. Here, we show that these models fail in two important respects. First, they only support a relationship between demography and culture in implausible conditions. Second, their predictions conflict with the available archaeological and ethnographic evidence. We conclude that new theoretical and empirical research is required to identify the factors that drove the changes in cultural complexity that are documented by the archaeological record.
"Henrich (11) developed his model to explain a key part of Jones’ (21) interpretation of the archaeological record of Tasmania. Jones (21) argued that Tasmania experienced a slow cultural decline from the beginning of the Holocene until contact with Europeans. Henrich (11) avers that the decrease in the complexity of the Tasmanians’ technology has to do with their isolation from mainland Australia following the rise of sea levels 12-10 kya. Henrich (11) contends that the latter event would have reduced the pool of interacting social learners, and that this reduction would have led to reduced cultural complexity. At the heart of Henrich’s model (11) is a process of cultural transmission we will call “Best.” In Best, each individual in the older generation has a skill level that expresses how proficient he or she is at performing a given skill. Individuals in the younger generation learn the skill from the most skilled member of the older generation, but this copying process is inaccurate. Consequently, members of the younger generation will, on average, be worse at the skill than members of the older generation. It is at this point that strength in numbers becomes important: Larger populations have a higher probability of giving rise to learners who achieve a level of skill as high as or even higher than the level of skill of the most skilled member of the older generation."
...
"Powell et al. (12) presented a revised version of Henrich’s model (11). Their goal was to explain the regional variation in the timing of the Upper Paleolithic transition, which they characterize as the “substantial increase in technological and cultural complexity” during the Late Pleistocene. The key difference from Henrich’s model (11) is that Powell et al.’s model (12) does not use Best. Instead, their model is based on a two-stage transmission process. Learners first undergo vertical transmission (i.e., they learn from their same-sex biological parent). They then have the opportunity to improve their skill level by selecting another “cultural parent” proportional to the parent’s skill level. We will refer to this transmission process as “Payoff.” In simulations of their model, Powell et al. (12) obtained results that are equivalent to the results yielded by Henrich’s model (11)."