Threading the Weft, Testing the Warp

Population Concepts and the European Upper Paleolithic Chronocultural Framework

Bibliographic Data

ID20036743
AuthorsNick Reynolds (0000-0002-2150-8407, De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, corresponding author), Natasha Reynolds
Year2020
Pages187-212
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
PublisherSpringer International Publishing (PUBLISHER • SG)
DOI10.1007/978-3-030-46126-3_10
OpenAlexW3004554830
ISBN9783030461263
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited151

Interpretations of the European Upper Paleolithic archaeological record have long relied on concepts of past populations. In particular, cultural taxonomic units—which are used as a framework for describing the archaeological record—are commonly equated with past populations. However, our cultural taxonomy is highly historically contingent, and does not necessarily accurately reflect variation in the archaeological record. Furthermore, we lack a secure theoretical basis for the description of past human populations based on taxonomic units. In order to move past these problems and satisfactorily address questions of Upper Paleolithic populations, we need to entirely revise our approach to chronocultural framework building. Here, I outline a specific way of describing the archaeological record that deliberately avoids the use of cultural taxonomic units and instead concentrates on individual features of material culture. This approach may provide a more appropriate basis for the archaeological study of Upper Paleolithic populations and for comparisons with geneticGenetic/Genomic data

Archaeological record · Archaeology · Biology · Evolutionary biology · Genealogy · Geography · Population · Sociology · Upper Paleolithic · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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