Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T11:44:15.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tasmanian Knowledge and Skill: Maladaptive Imitation or Adequate Technology?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dwight Read
Dwight Read*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (dread@anthro.ucla.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A recent article has suggested that maintenance of complex tools and associated tasks in a group depends on the presence of skilled individuals to serve as targets for imitation. The expected number of skilled target individuals, it is argued, relates to the population size. It is predicted that population size and maximum complexity of tools and/or tasks should correlate, hence a decrease in population size could lead to maladaptive loss of skills. Data from Tasmania are said to support the argument. However, the argument neither agrees with the archaeological data from Tasmania nor ethnographic observations on hunter-gatherer societies. Instead of being an example of a group that underwent maladaptive loss, the indigenous people of Tasmania appear to have used tools sufficient for the tasks at hand. An alternative model is proposed that distinguishes between motor skills and knowledge needed to do tasks effectively and takes into account assessment of the time cost for developing skills. Loss of skills more likely relates to change in the mode of resource procurement or change in technology rather than a shortage of skilled, target individuals due to decrease in population size.

Résumé

Résumé

Un artículo reciente ha sugerido que el mantenimiento de herramientas complejas y tareas asociadas en un grupo depende de la presencia de individuos expertos quienes sirven como ejemplos para emulación. El número previsto de los individuos expertos, se discute, se relaciona con el tamaño de la población. Se predice que el tamaño de la población y la complejidad de herramientas y/o tareas deben correlacionar, por lo tanto una disminución en tamaño de la población podría resultar en la pérdida mal-adaptante de habilidades. Los datos de Tasmania se citan para apoyar la discusión. Sin embargo, la discusión ni conviene con los datos arqueológicos de Tasmania, ni las observaciones etnogríficas en sociedades de cazadores-recolectores. En vez de ser un ejemplo de un grupo que experimentó pérdida mal-adaptante, la gente indígena de Tasmania aparece haber utilizado las herramientas suficientes para sus tareas actuales. Se propone un modelo alternativo cual distingue entre las habilidades de motor y el conocimiento necesario para hacer tareas con eficacia, y evalúa el tiempo que costaría para aprender nuevas habilidades. La pérdida de habilidades se relaciona más probablemente con cambios en el modo de la conseguir recursos o cambios en tecnología, más bien que una escasez de individuos experto debido a la disminución de población.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 164 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Allen, H. 1979 Left out in the Cold: Why the Tasmanians Stopped Eating Fish. Artefact 4:1–10.Google Scholar
Bailey, H. P. 1960 A Method of Determining the Warmth and Temperateness of Climate. Geografiska Annaler 42(1):27–53.Google Scholar
Beaton, John 2000 Tasmania—An Extreme Version of Australia. In Australian Archaeologist: Collected Paper in Honour of Jim Allen, edited by Atholl Anderson and Tim Murray, pp. 182–186. Australian National University, Coombs Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Balikci, A. 1989 The Netsilik Eskimo. Reprinted. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights. Originally published 1970, Natural History Press, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis 2001 Constructing Frames of Reference: An Analytical Method for Archaeological Theory Building Using Ethnographic and Environmental Data Sets. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bousman, C. Britt 1993 Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations, Economic Risk and Tool Design. Lithic Technology 18:59–86.Google Scholar
Bowdler, S. 1982 Prehistoric archaeologyin Tasmania. In Advances in World Archaeology, edited by F. Wendorf, pp. 1–49. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Boyd, Robert, and Richerson, Peter 1985 Culture and the Evolutionary Process. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Boyd, Robert, and Richerson, Peter 2000 Memes: Universal Acid or a Better Mousetrap? In Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science, edited by R. Aunger, pp. 143–162. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Brown, S. 1986 Aboriginal Archaeological Resources in Southeast Tasmania. Occasional Paper No. 12. Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage, Hobart.Google Scholar
Bryden, M. M., O'Conner, S., and Jones, R. 1999 Archaeological Evidence for the Extinction of a Breeding Population of Elephant Seals in Tasmania in Prehistoric Times. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 9:430–437.3.0.CO;2-P>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collect, D. 1994 Engendered Space and Aboriginal Settlement on the Coast of Tasmania. In Archaeology in the North, edited by M.S. Sullivan, A. Brockwell and A. Webb, pp. 341–357. Northern Australia Res. Unit, Darwin.Google Scholar
Cook, Captain James 1776–1779 Cook's Journal of this Third Voyage, 1776–1779. Photostatic copy of the original journal: Mitchell Library Sydney.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, Richard 1984 Aboriginal Settlement Patterns in the Central Highlands, Tasmania. In Site Surveys and Significance Assessment in Australian Archaeology, edited by S. Sullivan and S. Bowdler, pp. 88–108. The Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, Richard 1990 The Archaeological Resources of Tasmanian Forests: Past Aboriginal Use of Forested Environments. Occasional Paper No. 27. Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage, Hobart.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, Richard 1995 Late Pleistocene Behavioural Variation and Time Trends: The Case From Tasmania. Archaeology in Oceania 30: 83–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosgrove, Richard 1997 The Tasmanian Aborigines Through the Ice Age. In Windows on Meteorology: Australian Perspective, edited by E. Webb, pp. 46–58. CSIRO, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, Richard 1999 Forty-two Degrees South: The Archaeology of Late Pleistocene Tasmania. Journal of World Prehistory 13: 357–402.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, Richard 2000 Lithic Raw Material Distribution in Tasmania. In Australian Archaeologist: Collected Paper in Honour of Jim Allen, edited by Atholl Anderson and Tim Murray, pp. 187–200. Australian National University, Coombs Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, Richard, and Allen, J. 2001 Prey choice and Hunting Strategies in the Late Pleistocene: Evidence from Southwest Tasmania. In Histories of Old Ages: Essays in Honour of Rhys Jones, edited by A. Anderson, S. O'Connor and I. Lilley, pp. 397–429. Australian National University, Coombs Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, R., Allen, J., and Marshall, B. 1990 Palaeoecology and Pleistocene Human Occupation in South Central Tasmania. Antiquity 64:59–78.Google Scholar
Dietler, John 2003 The Specialist Next Door: Microblade Production and Status in Island Chumash Households. Unpublished Masters Thesis, Department of Anthropology, UCLA, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Goodale, Jane 1971 Tiwi Wives. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Henrich, Joseph 2004 Demography and Cultural Evolution: How Adaptive Cultural Processes can Produce Maladaptive Losses—the Tasmanian Case. American Antiquity 69:197–214.Google Scholar
Hiatt, Betty 1967 The Food Quest and the Economy of the Tasmanian Aborigines. Oceania 38:99–133.Google Scholar
Hiatt, Betty 1968 The Food Quest and the Economy of the Tasmanian Aborigines (continued). Oceania 38:190–219.Google Scholar
Jones, R. 1971 Rocky Cape and the Problem of the Tasmanians. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Sydney, Sydney.Google Scholar
Jones, R. 1974 Tasmanian Tribes. Appendix to Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits and Proper Names , by NB Tindale, pp. 319–54. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Jones, R. 1995 Tasmanian Archaeology: Establishing the Sequences. Annual Review of Anthropology 24:423–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kee, S. 1990 Midlands Aboriginal Archaeological Survey. Occasional Paper 26. Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage, Hobart.Google Scholar
Hayden, B., and Gargett, R. 1988 Specialization in the Paleolithic. Lithic Technology 17:12–18.Google Scholar
Moir, J., and Tylor, E. G. 1900 On Stone Implements from Tasmania. Extracts from a Letter by J. Pax ton Moir. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 30:257–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noetling, Fritz 1911 The Food of the Tasmanian Aborigines. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 63:279–305.Google Scholar
Oswalt, W. 1973 Habitat and Technology: The Evolution of Hunting. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Oswalt, W. 1976 An Anthropological Analysis of Food-Getting Technology. John Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Pardoe, C. 1986 Population Genetics and Population Size in Prehistoric Tasmania. Australian Archaeology 22:1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pardoe, C. 1991 Isolation and Evolution in Tasmania. Current Anthropology 32:1–21.Google Scholar
Plomley, N. J. B (editor). 1966 Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson 1829–1834. Halstead Press, Kingsgrove.Google Scholar
Read, Dwight, and Leblanc, Steve 2003 Population Growth, Carrying Capacity, and Conflict. Current Anthropology 4:59–85.Google Scholar
Speth, J. D., and Spielman, K. A. 1983 Energy Source, Protein Metabolism, and Hunter-gatherer Subsistence Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2:1–31.Google Scholar
Texler, Jacob (Principal Investigator) 1983 Composition of Foods. Finfish and Shellfish Products: Raw, Processed and Prepared. Agriculture Handbook (United States Dept. of Agriculture) No. 8–15. U.S. Government Printing Offices, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Torrence, R. 1983 Time Budgeting and Hunter-gatherer Technology. In Hunter-Gatherer Economy in Prehistory: A European Perspective, edited by G, V. Bailey, pp. 11–22. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Walters, I. 1981 Why the Tasmanians Stopped Eating Fish: A Theoretical Consideration. Artefact 6:71–72.Google Scholar