Shipton, Ceri;
(2024)
Was culture cumulative in the Palaeolithic?
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences
10.1007/s11097-024-10005-y.
(In press).
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Abstract
This paper assesses the evidence for cumulative culture in the Palaeolithic through the lens of the most widely available line of evidence: knapped stone. Two types of cumulative culture are defined: additive traits in an individual’s repertoire, versus a population wide stock of skills. Complexity may both cumulate within a single realm of expertise such as stone knapping, or may accumulate with multiple realms of expertise, such as the conjunction of stone knapping and bead technology. The Palaeolithic emergence of the social transmission and innovation traits that underpin cumulativity are described and assessed in relation to the evidence for cumulative culture. Examples of local population continuity are assessed for inter-generational increases in complexity as predicted by cumulative culture models. At an individual level, all cultures can be considered cumulative; at a population level cumulative culture may be entirely absent from the Palaeolithic.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Was culture cumulative in the Palaeolithic? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s11097-024-10005-y |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-024-10005-y |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Cumulative culture, Lithic technology, Acheulean, Cultural transmission, Innovation |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10195648 |
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