Archaeological evidence suggests conflict among groups living in southeastern New Mexico ca. AD 1300, perhaps as a result of competition over dwindling bison populations. Projectile points from sites in the region are highly standardized during this time, which might reflect a heightened sense of group membership—"we are US, they are THEM"—in the face of social tensions. In this talk, I explore this hypothesis and some alternatives, and also, more generally, how who we learn skills from might affect technological change through time.

About the Speaker: Raven Garvey studies the influences of ecological, demographic, and social factors on prehistoric hunter-gatherers’ behaviors and broader cultural change through time. Her current field projects in Patagonia use simple economic models incorporating these factors to generate predictions of hunter-gatherer settlement and resource use at different times in the past. Her current lab-based projects are designed to test and develop models of cultural transmission and technological evolution, and to refine Patagonian chronologies using obsidian hydration.

This lecture is sponsored by the Michigan Archaeological Society.
To learn more about the MAS, please visit http://www.miarch.org/

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