Identifying social learning between Roman amphorae workshops through morphometric similarity

Coto-Sarmiento, María; Rubio-Campillo, Xavier; Remesal, J. Santos

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2018.06.002

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Our model can parsimoniously rationalize several enduring characteristics of POs: restriction of access; easier social learning within than between organizations; importance of cooperation for the fitness of POs; social learning (or, tradition) is dominant inside POs while individual learning (or, innovation) is dominant outside POs; specialization of POs; and the inertia and low adaptive capacity of POs. Our theory can provide clues for necessary historical, cultural-phylogenetic and archeological work to proceed [44][45][46][47]81 . We began doing this ourselves: we successfully test our theory using data from the EA 82 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Evolution of Productive Organizations

Brahm

Poblete

2020

Proceedings

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Organizations devoted to the production of goods and services, such as guilds, partnerships and modern corporations, have dominated the economic landscape in our species' history. We develop an explanation for their evolution drawing from cultural evolution theory. A basic tenet of this theory is that social learning, under certain conditions, allows for the diffusion of innovations in society, and therefore, the accumulation of culture. Our model shows that these organizations provide such conditions by possessing two characteristics, both prevalent in real world organizations: exclusivity of membership and more effective social learning within their boundaries. The model and its extensions parsimoniously explains the cooperative nature of the social learning advantage, organizational specialization, organizational rigidity and the locus of innovation. We find supportive evidence for our predictions using a sample of pre-modern societies drawn from the Ethnographic Atlas. Understanding the nature of these organizations informs the debate about their role in society.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Evolution of Productive Organizations

Brahm

Poblete

2020

Proceedings

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“…These results suggest that specialization within POs, a trait observed from their earliest historical account 47,51,55 , evolved because it favored the capacity of POs to benefit society via improvements in social learning. Our theory does not rely on trade and comparative advantage between units -countries, cities or organizations-as the driving force of specialization of these units 50 .…”

Section: Specializationmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Just as biologists study the function of a trait for reproduction and survival, we unpack the POs' function for cumulative culture, the key enabler of our species' success 40,13,14 . Our ultimate explanation of POs complements evolutionary approaches in economics 43 -that focus on change but not origin-and, by unpacking the role of exclusivity and enhanced social learning, it provides a clue that can guide empirical work in cultural evolution, be that historical 2,29,44,45 , cultural-phylogenetic 46 or archeological 47 . In this paper, we provide a step in that direction by testing the model using a sample of pre-modern societies drawn from the Ethnographic Atlas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…The management and economics literature has documented that learning from coworkers of the organization is more effective than learning from the outside 27,66 and the guilds and partnerships improve knowledge transmission between its members 29,30 . In archeology, evidence from three centuries of amphorae production in workshops in the Roman Empire shows that the variability of amphorae between workshops is consistent with a process of high-fidelity social learning within workshops (i.e., master to disciples) instead of horizontal transmission or mobility between workshops 47 . In forager societies, a review of the evidence on learning shows that "craft expertise -the kind of skill sets that forager lives depend on--is fine-tuned at a generation and reliably transmitted across generations by this mode of organized human learning environments" and "the parallels with the formal, institutionalized system of apprentice guilds could hardly be clearer" 51 .…”

Section: Formal Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The evolution of productive organizations

Brahm

Poblete

2020

Nat Hum Behav

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“…Those who employ this approach examine the processes by which people in the past learned to make things and how these processes drew them into a group of craftspeople who shared knowledge of materials and how to work them—a “community of practice” (see Seetah ). For instance, Castañeda () finds evidence for a process of stone‐knapping apprenticeship among the flakes and the “prematurely abandoned” cores of a Neolithic flint mine in Spain (see also Coto‐Sarmiento, Rubio‐Campillo, and Remesal ). Likewise, Mills () reveals a dialogue about the production of black‐and‐white ceramics among women Pueblo potters in the US Southwest who moved to their husbands’ communities after marriage.…”

Section: Situated Learning Things and Assemblagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Digs: Networks, Assemblages, and the Dissolution of Binary Categories in Anthropological Archaeology

Kosiba

2019

American Anthropologist

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Anthropological archaeology has long been a process of categorization. The history of the subdiscipline could be rendered in terms of an ongoing project to create, critique, and then refashion the categories by which archaeologists understand and explain social and ecological processes. Despite ever-changing theoretical tides, many archaeologists have continued to adhere to a lingua franca that demarcates their object of study, whether "the past," "nature," complexity, material culture, or historical knowledge. In 2018, strong currents in archaeological scholarship have both challenged and washed out the boundaries of many of these epistemological mainstays. This was more than a postmodern exercise to question metanarratives of history or to destabilize supposed social universals. The recent scholarship develops innovative theoretical perspectives and sophisticated methodological tools to shed light on the varied human interactions, practices, and projects that were previously occluded by research too sharply focused on bounded categories such as periods, polities, adaptations, and meanings. Furthermore, archaeologists are now more than ever critically examining the colonial institutions that they perpetuate and seeking to establish new common ground with Indigenous communities. A decidedly archaeological perspective seems to be taking shape.This is a view that sees social life from the ground up in terms of complicated relationships between people, things, and other organisms that cannot be reduced to catchall categories. [year in review, archaeology, archaeological theory, current issues, Indigenous archaeology, environmental anthropology] RESUMEN La arqueología antropológica ha sido durante mucho tiempo un proceso de categorización. La historia de la subdisciplina podría ser descrita en términos de un proyecto continuo de crear, criticar y luego rehacer las categorías a través de las cuales los arqueólogos entienden y explican los procesos sociales y ecológicos. A pesar de las mareas teóricas siempre cambiantes, muchos arqueólogos han continuado adhiriéndose a una lengua franca que demarca su objeto de estudio, ya sea "el pasado", "naturaleza", complejidad, cultura material o conocimiento histórico.En 2018, corrientes fuertes en la investigación arqueológica han tanto retado como difuminado los límites de muchos de los pilares epistemológicos. Esto fue más que un ejercicio posmoderno para cuestionar metanarrativas de la historia o para desestabilizar supuestos universales sociales. La reciente investigación desarrolla perspectivas teóricas innovadoras y herramientas metodológicas sofisticadas para arrojar luz sobre las variadas interacciones humanas, prácticas y proyectos que estuvieron previamente ocluidos por investigación excesivamente enfocada en categorías delimitadas tales como períodos, unidades políticas, adaptaciones y significados. Además, los arqueólogos ahora están más que nunca examinando críticamente las instituciones coloniales que perpetúan y buscando establecer un nuevo terreno común con las c...

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Identifying social learning between Roman amphorae workshops through morphometric similarity

Cited by 16 publications

References 25 publications

The Evolution of Productive Organizations

The Evolution of Productive Organizations

The evolution of productive organizations

New Digs: Networks, Assemblages, and the Dissolution of Binary Categories in Anthropological Archaeology

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