Learning from Each Other: a Communities of Practice Approach to Decorative Traditions of Northern Iroquoian Communities
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Learning from Each Other: a Communities of Practice Approach to Decorative Traditions of Northern Iroquoian Communities in the Late Woodland Steven G. H. Dorland 1
& Daniel
Ionico 2
Accepted: 27 September 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In this paper, we employ a communities of practice approach to investigate precontact childhood social learning and pottery production in the Lower Great Lakes. Until recently, there has been an implicit assumption that childhood learning involved primarily parentchild interactions. Building on current research that has begun to improve understanding of Indigenous socialization strategies, we apply a multi-scalar decorative analysis to investigate traditions of learning among potting communities in Southern Ontario and upstate New York, from ca. 900–1650 CE. Through a series of statistical analyses, we demonstrate a remarkable continuity in motif practices by child potters that is not evident among skilled potters, who were more impacted by social, demographic, and economic changes in their communities. The multi-generational tradition spanning at least 750 years leads us to suggest that child potters learned primarily in child groups through peer-to-peer learning. Although peer-to-peer learning has been observed ethnographically, this practice has often been overlooked in archaeology and warrants further inquiry. Keywords Late Woodland . Communities of practice . Constellations of practice .
Boundary objects . Childhood, social learning . Pottery production
Introduction In this paper, we propose a communities of practice approach to investigate intergenerational learning and childhood experiences in potting communities. A multi-scalar * Steven G. H. Dorland [email protected] Daniel Ionico [email protected]
1
University of Toronto, Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
2
Lab for Interdisciplinary Research on Archaeology Ceramics (LIRAC), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dorland and Ionico
ceramic motif analysis was conducted to evaluate temporal and spatial trends in the Lower Great Lakes. Our samples consist of ceramics from 30 villages or settlements dating to the Early Ontario Iroquoian period (CE 900–1280), Middle Ontario Iroquoian period (CE 1280–1420), and Late Ontario Iroquoian period (CE 1420–1650). This chronology is based on John Creese’s (2011) adjustment of the traditional Ontario Iroquoian Tradition (Wright 1966) to account for transitions. We apply a relative frequency distribution analysis, a principal component analysis, and Welch ANOVA statistics to address three research questions: (1) To what degree were children influenced by old-timers? (2) Were child groups present? (3) To what degree did potters maintain or change decorative traditions over time? Our results lead us to suggest that children were only loosely influenced by old-timers and learned pottery production in child groups. This type of learning embodied a long-standing tradition that reflects traditional
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