Abstract
Did the emergence of social complexity in the Gulf of Georgia, Northwest Coast affect the social learning contexts of technologies? Barbed bone and antler technologies were examined from a Darwinian perspective using Boyd and Richerson's (1985) dual inheritance approach in order to further understand their social learning context. Barbed point attributes were examined for prestige-based indirect (context) bias (Henrich and Henrich 2007), the adoption of cultural traits due to unrelated traits, such as status. The emergence of this form of transmission was expected to emerge with the Developed Northwest Coast pattern (Matson and Coupland 1995). Phylogenetic methods and cluster analyses were employed to examine spatial and temporal patterning in the stylistic and functional attributes of barbed bone and antler points. This study suggests the presence of individualized or affine-based learning in Northwest Coast barbed point technologies, and continuity in this mode of learning over the past 5,000 years.
Recommended Citation
Rorabaugh, Adam N.
(2012)
"Prestige, Transmission, and Barbed Bone and Antler Points in the Gulf of Georgia, Northwest Coast,"
Journal of Contemporary Anthropology: Vol. 3
:
Iss.
1,
Article 2.
Available at:
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jca/vol3/iss1/2