Abstract
North American fluted stone projectile points occur over a relatively short time span, ca. 13,300–11,900 calBP, referred to as the Early Paleoindian period. One long-standing topic in Paleoindian archaeology is whether variation in the points is the result of drift or adaptation to regional environments. Studies have returned apparently conflicting results, but closer inspection shows that the results are not in conflict. At one scale—the overall pattern of flake removal—there appears to have been an early continent-wide mode of point manufacture, but at another scale—projectile-point shape—there appears to have been regional adaptive differences. In terms of learning models, the Early Paleoindian period appears to have been characterized by a mix of indirect-bias learning at the continent-wide level and guided variation at the regional level, the latter a result of continued experimentation with hafting elements and other point characters to match the changing regional environments. Close examination of character-state changes allows a glimpse into how Paleoindian knappers negotiated the design landscape in terms of character-state optimality of their stone weaponry.
Keywords
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- 1.
For an example of individual learning involving stone tools, see Eren et al. (2011a, b). In this example, it took the experimental knapper 18 months to master a Middle Paleolithic lithic technology called “Preferential Levallois,” in which a stone nodule’s upper surface is carefully shaped such that a large “predetermined” flake can be removed with specific, beneficial morphometric properties (Eren and Lycett 2012). Some researchers have cited this long learning time as evidence for the difficulty of learning the Levallois technique and the high skill necessary to master it (Bar-Yosef 2013; Bar-Yosef and van Peer 2009; Putt et al. 2014). While undoubtedly “Preferential Levallois” represents expert learning (Wynn and Coolidge 2010), it is reasonable to hypothesize that the 18-month-long Levallois learning period of the experimental knapper would have decreased significantly had the learning been social rather than predominantly individual.
- 2.
Waters and Stafford (2007) use a slightly more conservative span for Clovis, with a maximum span of 13,250–12,800 calBP and a minimum span of 13,125–12,925 calBP.
- 3.
Recent analysis of Clovis points from one environmentally homogeneous region of the Upper American Midwest demonstrates that although production technique was the same across the sample, differences in shape occur and are highly correlated with the type of chert used to manufacture the points (Eren et al. 2015). These dichotomous results indicate that Clovis foragers engaged in two tiers of social learning. The lower, and more ancestral, tier relates to point flake-scar patterning and can be tied to conformist transmission of ancestral tool-making processes across the Clovis population. The upper, and more-derived, tier relates to point shape. In this case it can be tied to drift that resulted from increased forager interaction at different stone-outcrop hubs. Eren et al. (2015) suspect that we are viewing the very beginnings of a relaxation of social mechanisms that normally would act to reinforce ties and a concomitant gradual increase in the diversification of projectile-point shape that will accelerate in the post-Clovis period.
- 4.
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O’Brien, M.J. et al. (2015). Transmission of Cultural Variants in the North American Paleolithic. In: Mesoudi, A., Aoki, K. (eds) Learning Strategies and Cultural Evolution during the Palaeolithic. Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55363-2_9
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