People and Things: A Behavioral Approach to Material Culture

176 Pages·2008·1.45 MB·English

by  James M. Skibo

People and Things
James M. Skibo (cid:127) Michael Brian Schiffer
People and Things
A Behavioral Approach to Material Culture
James M. Skibo Michael Brian Schiffer
Illinois State University University of Arizona
Normal, IL Tucson, AZ
USA USA
[email protected] [email protected]
The following chapters are reprinted in modified form with permission from the indicated sources:
Chapter 3: Exploring the Origins of Pottery on the Colorado Plateau (with Eric Blinman), Pottery and
People (1999), edited by J. M. Skibo and G. Feinman, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. Chapter
4: Smudge Pits and Hide Smoking Revisited (with John G. Franzen and Eric C. Drake), Archaeological
Anthropology: Perspectives on Method and Theory (2007), edited by J. M. Skibo, M. Graves, and
M. Stark, University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Chapter 5: The Devil Is in the Details: The Cascade
Model of Invention Processes, American Antiquity (2005) 70: 485-502. Chapter 6: Ball Courts and
Ritual Performance (with William H. Walker), The Joyce Well Site, edited by J. M. Skibo, E. McCluney,
and W. Walker, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. Chapter 7: Social Theory and History in
Behavioral Archaeology, Expanding Archaeology (1999), edited by J. M. Skibo, W. Walker, and
A. Nielson, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. Chapter 8: Studying Technological Differentiation,
American Anthropologist (2002) 104: 1148-1161.
ISBN: 978-0-387-76524-2 e-ISBN: 978-0-387-76527-3
DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-76527-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008920067
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC
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Cover illustration: “Colorful Cadenas,” courtesy of Nathaniel Hardwick
Printed on acid-free paper
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Preface
The study of the human-made world, whether it is called artifacts, material culture,
or technology, has burgeoned across the academy. Archaeologists have for centu-
ries led the way, and today offer investigators myriad programs and conceptual
frameworks for engaging the things, ordinary and extraordinary, of everyday life.
This book is an attempt by practitioners of one program – Behavioral Archaeology
– to furnish between two covers some of our basic principles, heuristic tools, and
illustrative case studies. Our greater purpose, however, is to engage the ideas of two
competing programs – agency/practice and evolution – in hopes of initiating a dialog.
We are convinced that there is enough overlap in goals, interests, and conceptions
among these programs to warrant guarded optimism that a more encompassing,
more coherent framework for studying the material world can result from a
concerted effort to forge a higher-level synthesis. However, in engaging agency/
practice and evolution in Chap. 2, we are not reticent to point out conflicts between
Behavioral Archaeology and these programs.
This book will appeal to archaeologists and anthropologists as well as historians,
sociologists, and philosophers of technology. Those who study science–technology–
society interactions may also encounter useful ideas. Finally, this book is suitable
for upper-division and graduate courses on anthropological theory, archaeological
theory, and the study of technology.
The idea for this book came during a Fulbright sponsored trip to Porto Alegre,
Brazil, by Jim Skibo in 2004, and conversations with Adriana Schmidt Dias,
Fabíola Silva, Klaus Hilbert, and the participants in the seminar. The seminar was
on ceramic analysis, ethnoarchaeology, and pottery use-alteration, but much of the
discussion focused on how our theoretical approach to the study of technology
contrasts with agency/practice, evolution, and other theoretical models currently in
vogue. This led to a discussion between us and the decision to write this book.
Although we had been collaborators for over two decades, this was our first co-
authored book and we would like to thank the participants of the Fulbright seminar
for the provocative conversation that convinced us to embark on this enjoyable
enterprise.
A number of people commented on the manuscript: Eric Drake, Nathan
Hardwick, Vincent LaMotta, Fernanda Neubauer, Charles Orser, Tim Pauketat,
Michael Schaefer, and William Walker. Nathan Hardwick also created the wonderful
v
vi Preface
cover art, “Colorful Cadenas.” We also thank the editors at Springer, Teresa Krauss
and Katie Chabalko, for their interest in this project. Finally, we thank our wives,
Becky and Annette, for their unfailing support and love. This book is dedicated to
them.
Normal, IL James M. Skibo
Tucson, AZ Michael Brian Schiffer
Contents
List of Figures ................................................................................................... xi
List of Tables .................................................................................................... xiii
1 People and Things: A Performance-Based Theory ................................. 1
Behavioral Archaeology ................................................................................. 4
The Theory ..................................................................................................... 7
Life History/ Behavioral Chain ....................................................................... 9
Activities and Interactions .............................................................................. 10
Technical Choices .......................................................................................... 11
Performance Characteristics ........................................................................... 12
Application ..................................................................................................... 15
2 Behavior, Selection, Agency, Practice, and Beyond ................................ 17
Evolutionary Archaeology ............................................................................. 17
French School ................................................................................................. 20
Agency and Practice ....................................................................................... 22
Where the Rubber Meets the Road................................................................. 28
Logging Camps and Social Power ................................................................. 31
Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 34
3 The Origins of Pottery on the Colorado Plateau ..................................... 37
Origins ............................................................................................................ 37
Theoretical Models ......................................................................................... 40
Emergence of Ancestral Pueblo Pottery ......................................................... 41
Early Ceramic Sites .................................................................................... 43
The Study ................................................................................................... 44
Whole Vessel Use-Alteration Traces ............................................................. 47
Implications .................................................................................................... 51
Southwestern Pottery Origins Revisited ........................................................ 51
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viii Contents
4 Smudge Pits and Hide Smoking................................................................ 53
Grand Island ................................................................................................... 53
Gete Odena: Historic Accounts ...................................................................... 54
Gete Odena: Williams Era ............................................................................. 57
Gete Odena: Smudge Pits .............................................................................. 58
Performance-Based Analysis ..................................................................... 60
Performance Analysis of the Features ........................................................ 61
Other Supporting Evidence ........................................................................ 64
Why Smoke Hides? .................................................................................... 64
Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 66
5 The Devil is in the Details .......................................................................... 67
General Considerations .................................................................................. 69
The Cascade Model ........................................................................................ 71
Illustrating the Model: The Electromagnetic Telegraph ................................ 73
Creating the Prototype ................................................................................ 73
Technological Display ................................................................................ 75
Demonstrating “Practicality” ..................................................................... 75
Replication ................................................................................................. 77
Marketing and Sales ................................................................................... 77
Installation .................................................................................................. 78
Use/Operation ............................................................................................. 78
Maintenance ............................................................................................... 79
Functional Differentiation .......................................................................... 79
Operationalizing the Cascade Model on Archaeological Cases ..................... 80
Applicability of the CTS Construct ............................................................ 80
Discussion ...................................................................................................... 83
Implications of the Cascade Model ............................................................ 84
Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 87
6 Ritual Performance: Ball Courts and Religious Interaction ................. 89
Joyce Well Ball Court .................................................................................... 92
Morphology ................................................................................................ 93
Excavation ...................................................................................................... 95
Artifacts .......................................................................................................... 96
Culberson and Timberlake Ball Courts .......................................................... 97
The Boot Heel Courts ..................................................................................... 99
Ritual Performance ......................................................................................... 100
Manufacturing Performance ....................................................................... 100
Use Performance ........................................................................................ 101
Primary Functions of Animas Phase Courts .................................................. 103
Community Integration .............................................................................. 103
Celestial-Based Fertility Rituals ................................................................. 103
Integration in the Casas Grandes Interaction Sphere ................................. 104
Conclusions .................................................................................................... 105
Contents ix
7 Social Theory and History in Behavioral Archaeology:
Gender, Social Class, and the Demise
of the Early Electric Car .............................................................................. 107
Behavioral Archaeology and Social Theory .................................................. 108
Behavioral Archaeology and History ............................................................. 109
The Narrative: What Happened to the Early Electric Car? ............................ 111
History and Social Theory: The Electric Car Revisited ................................. 115
Summary and Conclusions ............................................................................. 121
8 Studying Technological Differentiation ................................................... 125
Technology Transfer: A Behavioral Framework ........................................... 127
Phases of Technology Transfer ...................................................................... 128
Information Transfer .................................................................................. 129
Experimentation ......................................................................................... 129
Redesign ..................................................................................................... 129
Replication ................................................................................................. 131
Acquisition ................................................................................................. 131
Use ............................................................................................................ 132
Narratives of Technological Differentiation .................................................. 133
The Case Study: Eighteenth-Century Electrical Technology......................... 134
Electrophysicists ......................................................................................... 135
Electrical Demonstrators ............................................................................ 138
Collectors of Electrical Technology ........................................................... 138
Electrotherapists ......................................................................................... 139
Atmospheric Electricians ........................................................................... 140
The Property Protectors .............................................................................. 141
Electrochemists .......................................................................................... 142
Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................................ 142
References ........................................................................................................... 145
Index .................................................................................................................... 167
List of Figures
Fig. 3.1 Interior of vessel with a carbon pattern caused by heating
food in the absence of water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Fig. 3.2 Vessel with an interior carbon pattern characteristic
of wet-mode cooking. The wider band of carbon likely
resulted from variable water levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Fig. 3.3 Exterior of a vessel that was used over fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Fig. 3.4 Interior of a vessel used to heat food in the wet mode. . . . . . . . . . . 49
Fig. 3.5 Interior of a vessel used to heat food in the dry mode.. . . . . . . . . . . 50
Fig. 4.1 The location of the Grand Island and the site of Gete Odena. . . . . 54
Fig. 4.2 Profile drawings of representative smudge pits found
at Gete Odena, each showing charred material at the base. . . . . . . 60
Fig. 4.3 Photos of an Ojibwe woman smoking a deer hide
(Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 86, Plate 75). . . . . . . . . . 63
Fig. 6.1 Location of the Joyce Well site in southwestern New Mexico. . . . . 90
Fig. 6.2 The rooms excavated at Joyce Well during the 1963 project. . . . . . 91
Fig. 6.3 The relative location of the pueblo and the ball court
at Joyce Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Fig. 6.4 Plan view of the Joyce Well ball court. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Fig. 6.5 Topographic map of the Joyce Well ball court. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Fig. 6.6 Locations of the Joyce Well, Culberson, and Timberlake
ball courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Fig. 6.7 Plan view of the Timberlake ball court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Fig. 6.8 Plan view of the Culberson ball court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
xi