Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Reconstruction of Social Organization Through Analysis of Material Remains

University Of Connecticut, Storrs CT

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Sally McBrearty at the University of Connecticut, Alison Mant-Melville will study variability in Middle Stone Age (MSA, 300-40 ka) stone tool technology to test for underlying behavioural patterning and the factors influencing technological trends. The MSA spans the emergence of behavioral complexity, the evolution of Homo sapiens, modern human replacement of contemporary hominin species, and dispersals within and out of Africa. Previous research shows the pattern and pace of MSA behavioural change to vary within and between regions. In East Africa, technological patterning is ambiguous and novel behaviors are temporally and spatially patchy. It is unclear to what extent stone tool behaviors represent changing social networks between groups or responses to fluctuating climate conditions, raw material and reduction differences, chance, or some interaction among these factors. The researchers will apply a novel and quantitative approach to studying the degree of shared material culture among East African MSA assemblages and to provide new insight into the patterns and processes shaping technological variability in space and time. Unravelling these issues is fundamental to answering questions of why, when, and where the modern human species began to display the complex and diverse behaviors that constitutes "humanity." As numerous, widespread, and enduring artefacts, stone tool assemblages are well placed to investigate these behavioral changes as they represent repeated, cumulative, and time-averaged technological behaviors that transcend generations. This project will support the doctoral training of the Co-PI (Alison Mant-Melville) and museum training for East African students. The methodology emphasizes comparability and reproducibility, which will facilitate the integration of the open-access data with studies in other time periods and regions. Given the public interest in modern human origins, the results will also be shared widely through conference presentations, journal articles, and public lectures. The project draws from robust middle-range theory and insights from knapping experiments to connect knapping behaviors with the social transmission of technical knowledge. Multivariate statistical methods on cores, flakes, and tools from 15 open-air assemblages in a range landscape contexts and from four sub-regions of Ethiopia and Kenya will identify "clusters" of similar technological decisions at different stages of the knapping sequence. The results will be assessed against model expectations for the effects of different sources of variability. Paleoenvironmental and climatic data for the models will be sourced from published lake cores and site sedimentary contexts. Modelling cultural transmission of technological behaviors between assemblages can serve as a generalized proxy for the degree of social interaction between groups. Systematically demonstrating such relationships is an essential component in any holistic analyses of behavioral change and for assessing the dispersals, contractions, and evolutionary relationships of MSA populations.