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Network Analysis and Entanglement

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Abstract

This article explores the extent to which formal network analysis can be used to study aspects of entanglement, the latter referring to the collective sets of dependencies between humans and things. The data used were derived from the Neolithic sites of Boncuklu and Çatalhöyük in central Turkey. The first part of the analysis involves using formal network methods to chart the changing interactions between humans and things at these sites through time. The values of betweenness and centrality vary through time in ways that illuminate the known transformations at the site as, for example, domestic cattle are introduced. The ego networks for houses across four time periods at the two sites are also patterned in ways that contribute to an understanding of social and economic trends. In a second set of analyses, formal network methods are applied to intersecting operational chains, or chainworks. Finally, the dependencies between humans and things are evaluated by exploring the costs and benefits of particular material choices relative to larger entanglements. In conclusion, it is argued that three types of entanglement can be represented and explored using methods taken from the network sciences. The first type concerns the large number of relations that surround any particular human or thing. The second concerns the ways in which entanglements are organized. The third type of entanglement concerns the dialectic between dependence (potential through reliance) and dependency (constraint through reliance).

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Acknowledgments

This paper is a result of research funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as part of the Island Networks project (grant agreement no. 360-62-060). We would like to thank the Graduate School of Archaeology of the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University for organizing a workshop at which the idea of networks and entanglements was first explored. We thank Daniel Weidele for advising us and providing feedback on the chainworks study. We are very grateful to Brian Codding and Carl Knappett for comments on an earlier version of this paper, and to five anonymous reviewers. We are also grateful to Douglas Baird for his help and advice in relation to the Boncuklu tanglegram.

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Hodder, I., Mol, A. Network Analysis and Entanglement. J Archaeol Method Theory 23, 1066–1094 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-015-9259-6

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