Michael J O''Brien
Biographic Data
| ID | 3616891 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael J O''Brien |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael J |
| FAMILY NAME | O''Brien |
| SIGNATURE | BRIEN M J O |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 404 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 36 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1957 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Estimating two key dimensions of cultural transmission from archaeological data
Geometric Morphometric Analyses Support Incorporating the Goshen Point Type into Plainview
Recent work has demonstrated that Goshen points overlap in time with another group of unfluted lanceolate points from the Plains, Plainview points. This has raised the question of whether the two types should be kept separate or consolidated into a single type. We sought to resolve this issue by applying geometric morphometric methods to a sample of points from well-documented Goshen and Plainview assemblages. We found that their shapes were stat…
An Assessment of Stone Weapon Tip Standardization During the Clovis-folsom Transition in the Western United States
It has long been assumed that Folsom points are more standardized than Clovis points, although an adequate test of this proposition has yet to be undertaken. Here, we address that deficiency by using data from a sample of Folsom and Clovis points recovered from sites across the western United States. We used geometric morphometric techniques to capture point shape and then conducted statistical analyses of variability associated with Clovis and F…
More (and more) on Clovis
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Social learning and technological evolution during the Clovis colonization of the New World
Solutreanism
The comments of Stanford and Bradley (above) do not address our criticisms and obfuscate the topic at hand with irrelevant data (e.g. the south-to-north movement of fluted points through the Ice Free Corridor), nonexistent data (e.g. 'under the water' or 'destroyed sites'), and questionable data (e.g. Meadowcroft and Cactus Hill are by no means widely accepted, nor are Stanford and Bradley's 'eight LGM sites' in the mid-Atlantic region). Before t…
On thin ice
Across Atlantic ice: the origin of America's Clovis culture(Stanford & Bradley 2012) is the latest iteration of a controversial proposal that North America was first colonised by people from Europe rather than from East Asia, as most researchers accept. The authors, Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley, argue that Solutrean groups from southern France and the Iberian Peninsula used watercraft to make their way across the North Atlantic and into Nort…
The Cultural Transmission of Great Basin Projectile-Point Technology II
We present an agent-based computer simulation that extends a previous experimental simulation (Mesoudi and O'Brien 2008) of the cultural transmission of projectile-point technology in the prehistoric Great Basin, with participants replaced with computer-generated agents. As in the experiment, individual learning is found to generate low correlations between artifact attributes, whereas indirectly biased cultural transmission (copying the point de…
The Cultural Transmission of Great Basin Projectile-Point Technology I
A Darwinian evolutionary approach to archaeology naturally leads to a focus on cultural transmission. Theoretical models of cultural evolution indicate that individual-level details of cultural transmission can have specific and significant population-level effects, implying that differences in transmission may be detectable in the archaeological record. Here we present an experimental simulation of the cultural transmission of prehistoric projec…
Evolutionism and North America's archaeological record
The archaeological record of North America has long been a laboratory for evolutionary studies. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, culture historians would regularly turn to evolutionism as a source of archaeological explanations. Sometimes the explanations were broadly Darwinian in nature, with reference to processes such as selection and genetic transmission, and other times they were based more on the evolutionism of the classic ninetee…
Publishing Archaeology in Science and Scientific American, 1940-2003
Many new, or processual, archaeologists of the 1960s argued that Americanist archaeology became scientific only in the 1960s. The hypothesis that the rate of publication of archaeological research in Science and Scientific American increased after about 1965, as new archaeologists sought to demonstrate to their peers and other scientists that archaeology was indeed a science, is disconfirmed. The rate of archaeological publication in these journa…
Thinking from Things
Nomothetic science and idiographic history in twentieth-century Americanist anthropology
For over a century, Americanist anthropologists have argued about whether their discipline is a historical one or a scientific one. Proponents of anthropology as history have claimed that the lineages of human cultures are made up of unique events that cannot be generalized into laws. If no laws can be drawn, then anthropology cannot be a science. Proponents of anthropology as science have claimed that there indeed are laws that govern humans and…
Cultural Traits
The basic analytical unit used by E. B. Tylor, Franz Boas, Clark Wissler, A. L. Kroeber, and other early anthropologists interested in cultural transmission was the cultural trait. Most assumed that such traits were, at base, mental phenomena acquired through teaching and learning. The lack of an explicit theoretical concept of cultural trait meant that the units varied greatly in scale, generality, and inclusiveness among ethnographers. Efforts …
Genes, Memes, and Human History
The epistemological nature of archaeological units
Understanding the epistemological nature of archaeological units, or types, is critical to archaeological research. Two aspects of units underpin the issue. First, ideational units must not be conflated with empirical units. Ideational units are units of measurement; empirical units are the things being measured. Ideational units can be either theoretical or descriptional. Theoretical units, as their name implies, are derived from a theoretical b…
The legacy of culture history in the Southeastern United States
Lyon, Edwin A. A New Deal for Southeastern Archaeology. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996. xiv + 283 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. $24.95 paper. Griffin, Patricia C., ed. Fifty Years of Southeastern Archaeology: Selected Works of John W. Griffin. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. xx + 257 pp. including appendices and index. $39.95 cloth. McNutt, Charles, ed. Prehistory of the Central Mississippi Valley. Tu…
Chronometers and Units in Early Archaeology and Paleontology
Early in the nineteenth century, geologist Charles Lyell reasoned that successively older faunas would contain progressively more extinct species and younger faunas relatively more extant species. The present, with one-hundred percent extant species, was the chronological anchor. In archaeology a similar notion underpins the direct historical approach: Successively older cultures will contain progressively fewer of the cultural traits found in ex…
Evolutionary Archaeology
Basic Incompatibilities between Evolutionary and Behavioral Archaeology
Schiffer (1996) recently proposed that, despite some incompatibilities, considerable common ground exists between behavioral archaeology and evolutionary, or selectionist, archaeology. He concludes that there is no fundamental reason why the two approaches cannot work in concert to explain human behavioral change. There are, however, several important reasons why the two programs, at least as currently conceived, cannot work together in any thoro…
The Goals of Evolutionary Archaeology
In recent critiques of evolutionary archaeology, Boone and Smith (1998) have expressed a preference for evolutionary ecology, Spencer (1997) for processual archaeology, and Schiffer (1996) for behavioral archaeology. These various approaches to explanation ask different questions and employ interpretive principles different from those of evolutionary archaeology. Some of their questions, methods, and principles overlap with those of evolutionary …
The Concept of Evolution in Early Twentieth-Century Americanist Archaeology
American archaeologists who founded the culture-history paradigm early in the 20th century held a view of the evolution of cultures commensurate with Darwin's notions of continuous, gradual change. Initially, in their view, artifacts varied continuously across space and through time. This materialist metaphysic was, however, short-lived. Its fall from favor began in the 1920s, when it was noted that cultural evolution was reticulate whereas biolo…
Parasites, Porotic Hyperostosis, and the Implications of Changing Perspectives
Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis traditionally have been viewed (at least by archaeologists) as indicators of chronic iron deficiency anemia resulting from a dependency upon maize. Recent interpretations, however, have sought to explain these conditions as an evolutionary, adaptive response to intestinal parasites rather than as a consequence of poor nutrition. Thus diet is eliminated as a contributing factor. This model, however, adopts…
Regional analysis of the Zapotec empire, Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
The origin and development of the Zapotec empire, centered in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, are topics that have been the focus of considerable archaeological work during the past two decades. Despite the amount of work that has been carried out ‐ excavation, ethnohistoric analysis, and large‐scale survey ‐ heightened debate over the nature of the empire and its capital, Monte Albán, demonstrates that myriad key issues are poorly understood. The …
The Role of Adaptation in Archaeological Explanation
Adaptation, a venerable icon in archaeology, often is afforded the vacuous role of being an ex-post-facto argument used to 'explain' the appearance and persistence of traits among prehistoric groups-a position that has seriously impeded development of a selectionist perspective in archaeology. Biological and philosophical definitions of adaptation-and by extension, definitions of adaptedness-vary considerably, but all are far removed from those u…
The Goals of Evolutionary Archaeology
In recent critiques of evolutionary archaeology, Boone and Smith (1998) have expressed a preference for evolutionary ecology, Spencer (1997) for processual archaeology, and Schiffer (1996) for behavioral archaeology. These various approaches to explanation ask different questions and employ interpretive principles different from those of evolutionary archaeology. Some of their questions, methods, and principles overlap with those of evolutionary …
The epistemological nature of archaeological units
Understanding the epistemological nature of archaeological units, or types, is critical to archaeological research. Two aspects of units underpin the issue. First, ideational units must not be conflated with empirical units. Ideational units are units of measurement; empirical units are the things being measured. Ideational units can be either theoretical or descriptional. Theoretical units, as their name implies, are derived from a theoretical b…
Social learning and technological evolution during the Clovis colonization of the New World
Cultural Traits
The basic analytical unit used by E. B. Tylor, Franz Boas, Clark Wissler, A. L. Kroeber, and other early anthropologists interested in cultural transmission was the cultural trait. Most assumed that such traits were, at base, mental phenomena acquired through teaching and learning. The lack of an explicit theoretical concept of cultural trait meant that the units varied greatly in scale, generality, and inclusiveness among ethnographers. Efforts …
The Role of Adaptation in Archaeological Explanation
Adaptation, a venerable icon in archaeology, often is afforded the vacuous role of being an ex-post-facto argument used to 'explain' the appearance and persistence of traits among prehistoric groups-a position that has seriously impeded development of a selectionist perspective in archaeology. Biological and philosophical definitions of adaptation-and by extension, definitions of adaptedness-vary considerably, but all are far removed from those u…
Parasites, Porotic Hyperostosis, and the Implications of Changing Perspectives
Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis traditionally have been viewed (at least by archaeologists) as indicators of chronic iron deficiency anemia resulting from a dependency upon maize. Recent interpretations, however, have sought to explain these conditions as an evolutionary, adaptive response to intestinal parasites rather than as a consequence of poor nutrition. Thus diet is eliminated as a contributing factor. This model, however, adopts…
The Cultural Transmission of Great Basin Projectile-Point Technology I
A Darwinian evolutionary approach to archaeology naturally leads to a focus on cultural transmission. Theoretical models of cultural evolution indicate that individual-level details of cultural transmission can have specific and significant population-level effects, implying that differences in transmission may be detectable in the archaeological record. Here we present an experimental simulation of the cultural transmission of prehistoric projec…
Basic Incompatibilities between Evolutionary and Behavioral Archaeology
Schiffer (1996) recently proposed that, despite some incompatibilities, considerable common ground exists between behavioral archaeology and evolutionary, or selectionist, archaeology. He concludes that there is no fundamental reason why the two approaches cannot work in concert to explain human behavioral change. There are, however, several important reasons why the two programs, at least as currently conceived, cannot work together in any thoro…
Chronometers and Units in Early Archaeology and Paleontology
Early in the nineteenth century, geologist Charles Lyell reasoned that successively older faunas would contain progressively more extinct species and younger faunas relatively more extant species. The present, with one-hundred percent extant species, was the chronological anchor. In archaeology a similar notion underpins the direct historical approach: Successively older cultures will contain progressively fewer of the cultural traits found in ex…
An Assessment of Stone Weapon Tip Standardization During the Clovis-folsom Transition in the Western United States
It has long been assumed that Folsom points are more standardized than Clovis points, although an adequate test of this proposition has yet to be undertaken. Here, we address that deficiency by using data from a sample of Folsom and Clovis points recovered from sites across the western United States. We used geometric morphometric techniques to capture point shape and then conducted statistical analyses of variability associated with Clovis and F…
Nomothetic science and idiographic history in twentieth-century Americanist anthropology
For over a century, Americanist anthropologists have argued about whether their discipline is a historical one or a scientific one. Proponents of anthropology as history have claimed that the lineages of human cultures are made up of unique events that cannot be generalized into laws. If no laws can be drawn, then anthropology cannot be a science. Proponents of anthropology as science have claimed that there indeed are laws that govern humans and…
The Cultural Transmission of Great Basin Projectile-Point Technology II
We present an agent-based computer simulation that extends a previous experimental simulation (Mesoudi and O'Brien 2008) of the cultural transmission of projectile-point technology in the prehistoric Great Basin, with participants replaced with computer-generated agents. As in the experiment, individual learning is found to generate low correlations between artifact attributes, whereas indirectly biased cultural transmission (copying the point de…
Regional analysis of the Zapotec empire, Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
The origin and development of the Zapotec empire, centered in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, are topics that have been the focus of considerable archaeological work during the past two decades. Despite the amount of work that has been carried out ‐ excavation, ethnohistoric analysis, and large‐scale survey ‐ heightened debate over the nature of the empire and its capital, Monte Albán, demonstrates that myriad key issues are poorly understood. The …
A Paradigmatic Shift in the Search for the Origin of Agriculture
Geometric Morphometric Analyses Support Incorporating the Goshen Point Type into Plainview
Recent work has demonstrated that Goshen points overlap in time with another group of unfluted lanceolate points from the Plains, Plainview points. This has raised the question of whether the two types should be kept separate or consolidated into a single type. We sought to resolve this issue by applying geometric morphometric methods to a sample of points from well-documented Goshen and Plainview assemblages. We found that their shapes were stat…
On thin ice
Across Atlantic ice: the origin of America's Clovis culture(Stanford & Bradley 2012) is the latest iteration of a controversial proposal that North America was first colonised by people from Europe rather than from East Asia, as most researchers accept. The authors, Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley, argue that Solutrean groups from southern France and the Iberian Peninsula used watercraft to make their way across the North Atlantic and into Nort…
Evolutionism and North America's archaeological record
The archaeological record of North America has long been a laboratory for evolutionary studies. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, culture historians would regularly turn to evolutionism as a source of archaeological explanations. Sometimes the explanations were broadly Darwinian in nature, with reference to processes such as selection and genetic transmission, and other times they were based more on the evolutionism of the classic ninetee…
The Concept of Evolution in Early Twentieth-Century Americanist Archaeology
American archaeologists who founded the culture-history paradigm early in the 20th century held a view of the evolution of cultures commensurate with Darwin's notions of continuous, gradual change. Initially, in their view, artifacts varied continuously across space and through time. This materialist metaphysic was, however, short-lived. Its fall from favor began in the 1920s, when it was noted that cultural evolution was reticulate whereas biolo…
Functional analysis of water control features at Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico
Agricultural water distribution systems in the Highlands of Mexico have received considerable attention. Functional analysis of water control features at Monte Alban, Oaxaca demonstrates the potential of a classification system which treats both agricultural and residential‐civic public works, such as drains, filters, catchment structures, and reservoirs
Estimating two key dimensions of cultural transmission from archaeological data
Solutreanism
The comments of Stanford and Bradley (above) do not address our criticisms and obfuscate the topic at hand with irrelevant data (e.g. the south-to-north movement of fluted points through the Ice Free Corridor), nonexistent data (e.g. 'under the water' or 'destroyed sites'), and questionable data (e.g. Meadowcroft and Cactus Hill are by no means widely accepted, nor are Stanford and Bradley's 'eight LGM sites' in the mid-Atlantic region). Before t…
An Archaeological Survey on the Xoxocotlan Piedmont, Oaxaca, Mexico
Surface survey on the piedmont near the present village of Xoxocotlan, Oaxaca, Mexico, has revealed the pattern of prehistoric settlement around an irrigation canal that distributed water from a dammed reservoir located on the flanks of Monte Alban. Intensive systematic collection techniques have permitted quantitative statements to be made about the density of occupation and the contribution of the irrigation system to the food supply of Monte A…
The legacy of culture history in the Southeastern United States
Lyon, Edwin A. A New Deal for Southeastern Archaeology. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996. xiv + 283 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. $24.95 paper. Griffin, Patricia C., ed. Fifty Years of Southeastern Archaeology: Selected Works of John W. Griffin. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. xx + 257 pp. including appendices and index. $39.95 cloth. McNutt, Charles, ed. Prehistory of the Central Mississippi Valley. Tu…
Evolutionary Archaeology
Publishing Archaeology in Science and Scientific American, 1940-2003
Many new, or processual, archaeologists of the 1960s argued that Americanist archaeology became scientific only in the 1960s. The hypothesis that the rate of publication of archaeological research in Science and Scientific American increased after about 1965, as new archaeologists sought to demonstrate to their peers and other scientists that archaeology was indeed a science, is disconfirmed. The rate of archaeological publication in these journa…
Aspects of Religious Life in Tepoztlan
Socrates and Aristophanes
I: Introduction II: The Clouds III: The Other Plays 1: The Acharnians 2: The Knights 3: The Wasps 4: The Peace 5: The Birds 6: The Lysistrate 7: The Thesmophoriazusai 8: The Frogs 9: The Assembly of Women 10: The Plutos IV: Conclusion Notes Index
Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex. A Collection of Critical Essays
Aristophanes
The Homeric Imagination
An Archaeological Survey on the Xoxocotlan Piedmont, Oaxaca, Mexico
Surface survey on the piedmont near the present village of Xoxocotlan, Oaxaca, Mexico, has revealed the pattern of prehistoric settlement around an irrigation canal that distributed water from a dammed reservoir located on the flanks of Monte Alban. Intensive systematic collection techniques have permitted quantitative statements to be made about the density of occupation and the contribution of the irrigation system to the food supply of Monte A…
Functional analysis of water control features at Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico
Agricultural water distribution systems in the Highlands of Mexico have received considerable attention. Functional analysis of water control features at Monte Alban, Oaxaca demonstrates the potential of a classification system which treats both agricultural and residential‐civic public works, such as drains, filters, catchment structures, and reservoirs
Prehistoric Architecture in the Eastern United States
Grassland, Forest, and Historical Settlement
This volume presents a detailed examination of early American settlement processes and patterns during the frontier and postfrontier period in a portion of northeastern Missouri covering an area of approximately 444 square miles.The research was conducted in the central Salt River valley as part of the Cannon Reservoir Human Ecology Project sponsored by the St. Louis District of the United States Corps of Engineers.The project, directed by anthro…
Grassland, Forest, and Historical Settlement
This volume presents a detailed examination of early American settlement processes and patterns during the frontier and postfrontier period in a portion of northeastern Missouri covering an area of approximately 444 square miles.The research was conducted in the central Salt River valley as part of the Cannon Reservoir Human Ecology Project sponsored by the St. Louis District of the United States Corps of Engineers.The project, directed by anthro…
A Paradigmatic Shift in the Search for the Origin of Agriculture
Regional analysis of the Zapotec empire, Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
The origin and development of the Zapotec empire, centered in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, are topics that have been the focus of considerable archaeological work during the past two decades. Despite the amount of work that has been carried out ‐ excavation, ethnohistoric analysis, and large‐scale survey ‐ heightened debate over the nature of the empire and its capital, Monte Albán, demonstrates that myriad key issues are poorly understood. The …
The Role of Adaptation in Archaeological Explanation
Adaptation, a venerable icon in archaeology, often is afforded the vacuous role of being an ex-post-facto argument used to 'explain' the appearance and persistence of traits among prehistoric groups-a position that has seriously impeded development of a selectionist perspective in archaeology. Biological and philosophical definitions of adaptation-and by extension, definitions of adaptedness-vary considerably, but all are far removed from those u…
The Concept of Evolution in Early Twentieth-Century Americanist Archaeology
American archaeologists who founded the culture-history paradigm early in the 20th century held a view of the evolution of cultures commensurate with Darwin's notions of continuous, gradual change. Initially, in their view, artifacts varied continuously across space and through time. This materialist metaphysic was, however, short-lived. Its fall from favor began in the 1920s, when it was noted that cultural evolution was reticulate whereas biolo…
Parasites, Porotic Hyperostosis, and the Implications of Changing Perspectives
Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis traditionally have been viewed (at least by archaeologists) as indicators of chronic iron deficiency anemia resulting from a dependency upon maize. Recent interpretations, however, have sought to explain these conditions as an evolutionary, adaptive response to intestinal parasites rather than as a consequence of poor nutrition. Thus diet is eliminated as a contributing factor. This model, however, adopts…
Evolutionary Archaeology
Basic Incompatibilities between Evolutionary and Behavioral Archaeology
Schiffer (1996) recently proposed that, despite some incompatibilities, considerable common ground exists between behavioral archaeology and evolutionary, or selectionist, archaeology. He concludes that there is no fundamental reason why the two approaches cannot work in concert to explain human behavioral change. There are, however, several important reasons why the two programs, at least as currently conceived, cannot work together in any thoro…
The Goals of Evolutionary Archaeology
In recent critiques of evolutionary archaeology, Boone and Smith (1998) have expressed a preference for evolutionary ecology, Spencer (1997) for processual archaeology, and Schiffer (1996) for behavioral archaeology. These various approaches to explanation ask different questions and employ interpretive principles different from those of evolutionary archaeology. Some of their questions, methods, and principles overlap with those of evolutionary …
The legacy of culture history in the Southeastern United States
Lyon, Edwin A. A New Deal for Southeastern Archaeology. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996. xiv + 283 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. $24.95 paper. Griffin, Patricia C., ed. Fifty Years of Southeastern Archaeology: Selected Works of John W. Griffin. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996. xx + 257 pp. including appendices and index. $39.95 cloth. McNutt, Charles, ed. Prehistory of the Central Mississippi Valley. Tu…
Chronometers and Units in Early Archaeology and Paleontology
Early in the nineteenth century, geologist Charles Lyell reasoned that successively older faunas would contain progressively more extinct species and younger faunas relatively more extant species. The present, with one-hundred percent extant species, was the chronological anchor. In archaeology a similar notion underpins the direct historical approach: Successively older cultures will contain progressively fewer of the cultural traits found in ex…
The epistemological nature of archaeological units
Understanding the epistemological nature of archaeological units, or types, is critical to archaeological research. Two aspects of units underpin the issue. First, ideational units must not be conflated with empirical units. Ideational units are units of measurement; empirical units are the things being measured. Ideational units can be either theoretical or descriptional. Theoretical units, as their name implies, are derived from a theoretical b…
Cultural Traits
The basic analytical unit used by E. B. Tylor, Franz Boas, Clark Wissler, A. L. Kroeber, and other early anthropologists interested in cultural transmission was the cultural trait. Most assumed that such traits were, at base, mental phenomena acquired through teaching and learning. The lack of an explicit theoretical concept of cultural trait meant that the units varied greatly in scale, generality, and inclusiveness among ethnographers. Efforts …
Genes, Memes, and Human History
Nomothetic science and idiographic history in twentieth-century Americanist anthropology
For over a century, Americanist anthropologists have argued about whether their discipline is a historical one or a scientific one. Proponents of anthropology as history have claimed that the lineages of human cultures are made up of unique events that cannot be generalized into laws. If no laws can be drawn, then anthropology cannot be a science. Proponents of anthropology as science have claimed that there indeed are laws that govern humans and…
Evolutionism and North America's archaeological record
The archaeological record of North America has long been a laboratory for evolutionary studies. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, culture historians would regularly turn to evolutionism as a source of archaeological explanations. Sometimes the explanations were broadly Darwinian in nature, with reference to processes such as selection and genetic transmission, and other times they were based more on the evolutionism of the classic ninetee…
Archaeology (23 works) · History (21 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Geography (14 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (13 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Anthropology (9 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (9 works)