Experts Also Fail: a New Methodological Approach to Skills Analysis in Lithic Industries
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Experts Also Fail: a New Methodological Approach to Skills Analysis in Lithic Industries Concepción Torres 1
& Javier
Baena Preysler 1
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract More and more contributions to the field of lithics are taking into consideration skill levels and learning processes in prehistory, with the aim of clarifying not only how individuals acted when they produced their tools but also of addressing the processes of change or continuity in the technocultural traditions of past societies and the participation of different social groups in the collective production. For this purpose, the demarcation of realistic categories of “experts” and “novices” in knapping, as well as a determination of what attributes differentiate each one, are essential. Nowadays, knapping experiments offer a more realistic approach for a comparative study in which skill technotypes can indicate the existence of different skill levels inside a particular assemblage. Through the typologies of these experimental technical entities and their comparison with the archeological record, we can deduce the presence of particular models of social production and learning processes during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Keywords Paleolithic . Learning . Skill . Technotypes . Lithic technology
Introduction In recent years, several approaches related to anthropology, psychopedagogy, and even ethology have been introduced into studies on behavior and learning in prehistory with the aim of clarifying not only how individuals acted when they produced their tools but also of addressing the processes of change or continuity in the technocultural traditions of past societies. For this reason, learning processes understood as a vehicle of cultural * Javier Baena Preysler [email protected] Concepción Torres [email protected]
1
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, Autonomous University of Madrid (Campus Cantoblanco), 28049 Madrid, Spain
Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology
transmission become a concept fundamental to understanding behavior in the past and particularly the processes of cultural evolution that took place in our past communities. It can be generally accepted that what we are able to do at any given point in time depends not only on our natural capacities and level of maturity but also on our level of interaction with the biological, geographical, and social environment. Along these lines, many investigations have contributed to providing new approaches in archeological studies in general and, specifically, in the study of the lithic record. For the reconstruction of reduction sequences and, consequently, for the analysis of learning processes, we will distinguish two fundamental aspects of ability: (i) the variables of a technical or motor nature and (ii) the technological or logical-cognitive variables. This differentiation between the technical and the technological, together with experimental knowledge, is fundamental for the determination of the limitations of knapping skills in archeological sites a
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