The Explanation of Artifact Variability
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7602633 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Brian Schiffer (University of Arizona), James M Skibo (Illinois State University) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 27-50 |
| Publication date | 1997-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Antiquity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/282378 |
| OpenAlex | W2062239099 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 225 |
| References cited | 101 |
We furnish a theoretical framework for explaining that portion of formal variability in artifacts attributable to the behavior of the artisan. Major causal factors are the artisan's knowledge and experience, extent of feedback on performance in activities along the artifact's behavioral chain, situational factors in behavioral chain activities, technological constraints, and social processes of conflict and negotiation. In identifying the causal factors at work in a specific case, the investigator must focus analytically on activities-that is, on people-people, people-artifact, and artifact-artifact interactions-and on the performance characteristics relevant to each. Application of this behavioral framework allows abandonment of many cherished but unhelpful concepts, including style and function. Ceramic artifacts, the low-fired, clay cooking pot in particular, are employed for illustrative purposes
Abandonment (legal) · Archaeology · Artifact (error) · Cognitive psychology · Negotiation · Political science · Situational ethics · Social science · Sociology · Style (visual arts) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · History · Psychology · Social Psychology
Intended Function
Understanding Pottery Function
Entre estilo e função
As formações territoriais na terra indígena Lalima, Miranda/MS
Os contextos funerários na arqueologia da calha do rio Amazonas
Projeto Quebra-Anzol, Minas Gerais
Estéticas da transformação
Cultura material lítica e cerâmica das populações pré-coloniais dos sítios Inhazinha e Rodrigues Furtado, município de Perdizes/MG
Parafernália das mães-ancestrais
A cerâmica arqueológica na terra indígena Kaiabi (MT/PA)
Objetos distribuídos do Baixo Amazonas
O lugar certo é aqui
História das caretas
Pindorama de mboîa e îakaré
O complexo Tupi da Amazônia Oriental
Using Human Rational Behavior to Reconstruct Events of Scarce Archaeological Evidence
A Cerâmica Capão Do Canga
Cerâmica Antiga Na Periferia Leste Amazônica
Materias primas alfareras en dos componentes del primer milenio de la Era en El Sunchal (Anfama, Tucumán)
Harm’s Way
Irrigation in the Khorezm oasis, past and present
Technology and Culture in the Invention of Lost-wax Casting in South America
Explorando la Variabilidad Petrográfica entre Vasijas Decoradas y Lisas del Sitio La Palmera 2 (Entre Ríos, Argentina)
Tecnología lítica en la transición de cazadores recolectores a sociedades agropastoriles en la porción meridional de los Andes Centro Sur
La Cerámica Tlwanaku De La Isla Pariti Como Recipiente
Meaning in the making
Análisis multielementales de secciones delgadas e interpretaciones preliminares en fragmentos de cerámica de Markaconga - Acomayo Cusco
La technologie lithique, de part et d’autre de l’Atlantique
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Fronter migration and the built enviroment in Southewestern Campeche
Gete Odena
Corpos que emergem
Caracterização de solos com terra preta
Levantamento arqueológico na Aldeia Lalima, Miranda/MS
Arqueologia e Antropologia da agência
Revisitando análises de cerâmicas no sul e sudeste brasileiro
Oficinas com argila e pedaços de pote
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Travelling With the Potter's Wheel in the Early Bronze Age Aegean
Socioeconomic Development in the Bronze Age
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Social Identity and Ethnic Interaction in the Western Pueblos of the American Southwest
Archaeologies of technology
A Theoretical Approach to Style in Levantine Rock Art
Darwinism and Historical Archaeology
Lithics in the land of the lightning brothers
Regionalism and Social Landscape as Inferred From an Ethnoarchaeological Study of Pottery Production in Jordan
But Robert, Where Did the Pots Go? Ceramic Exchange and the Economy of Ancient Matacapan
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Understanding Pottery Function
At the Potter’s Wheel
Reinventing artisanal knowledge and practice
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The medieval and post-medieval ceramics from Manises (Valencia). A reassessment from the new excavations at Barri d’Obradors
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Indigenous technologies and the production of early colonial ceramics in Dominican Republic
Variability and continuity of ceramic manufacturing of prehistoric pottery from Upper Nubia, Sudan
Asymmetrical Paleolithic wooden spear tips
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Durable Residues
Domestic Patterns of Tableware Consumption in Roman Celtiberia
Lo que la cerámica esconde
Distinctive Places, Suitable Spaces
A Behavioral Archaeologist Responds
Stimulated Variation and Cascades
Taken with a Grain of Salt
Differences in Manufacturing Traditions and Assemblage-Level Patterns
Knowledge, Know-how and Raw Material - The Production of Late Neolithic Flint Daggers in Scandinavia
Ethnoarchaeology
Multiproxy Analysis of Adhered and Absorbed Food Residues Associated with Pottery
Spreading of Innovative Technical Traits and Cumulative Technical Evolution
Reverse Engineering the Ceramic Cooking Pot
Where are the witches of prehistory
An Anthropological Archaeologist
The Evolution of Migration
The Materiality of Social Power
Introduction to Discontinuities and Continuities
Getting to the point
Practical and prestige technologies
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Current Research on the Gulf Coast of Mexico
Individuals Among the Pots
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De-mystifying Pottery Production in the Maya Lowlands
Beyond baselines of performance
Crafting illusions
The manufacturing process of 3rd millennium BC bone based incrusted pottery decoration from the Middle Guadiana river basin (Badajoz, Spain)
The forest or the trees? Behavioral and methodological considerations for geochemical characterization of heavily-tempered ceramic pastes using NAA and LA-ICP-MS
Presenting multivariate statistical protocols in R using Roman wine amphorae productions in Catalonia, Spain
Past human decision-making based on stone tool performance
Exchange of Coarse Orange pottery in the Middle Classic Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico
Variation in North American dart points and arrow points when one or both are present
Detecting variability
The analytical nexus of ceramic paste composition studies
Artefacts as categories
Pots and Potters
Technological Perspectives on Behavioral Change
The dynamics of stylistic change in Arikara ceramics
New perspectives in archeology.
The Sounds and Colors of Power
Engendering archaeology
Ceramic Ecology Revisited 1987, Parts i and ii: The Technology and Socioeconomics of Pottery
Stone Tools
The Use of Materials Science Techniques in the Study of Pottery Construction and Use
The Uses of style in archaeology
Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics
Stylistic Variation in Prehistoric Ceramics
The Structure of Science
Pots as Tools
The Present Past
Material culture and mass consumption
Uncommon ground
Symbols in action
Formation processes of the archaeological record
Ceramic theory and cultural process
Time, energy, and stone tools
The Archaeology of inequality
Pottery Analysis, Second Edition
Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory
The Social Life of Things
Archaeological Hammers and Theories
The Use and Misuse of Nineteenth-Century English and American Ceramics in Archaeological Analysis
Ceramic Production in the American Southwest
Technological Choices
Analysis of Methods of Potmaking in Archaeology
Why decorate a pot? Midwestern household pottery, 200 B.C.-A.D.600
Evaluating Lithic Strategies and Design Criteria
Style, Society, and Person
Archaeological Ceramics
Ceramics for the Archaeologist
Reconsidering the behavioral basis for style
A theory of architectural design
Evolutionary implications of design and performance characteristics of prehistoric pottery
Social agency and the dynamics of prehistoric technology
Memorial
The influence of surface treatment on heating effectiveness of ceramic vessels
Ceramic Surface Treatment and Abrasion Resistance
Middle paleolithic scraper reduction
Use Alteration of Pottery Vessel Surfaces
The Thermal Properties of Textured Ceramics
Dung-tempered Clay
Light
Ceramic Production and Distribution
Pottery Function
Eastern Paleoindian Lithic Resource Use
A Historical Archaeology of the Modern World
The Atlatl
Pottery Function
New Perspectives on Experimental Archaeology
Research and Development in the Stone Age
Behavioral Analysis and the Structure of a Prehistoric Industry [and Comments and Reply]
Evolution of Specialized Pottery Production
Archaeology As Anthropology
Elements for an Anthropology of Technology
Identification of Imported Ceramics Through Functional Analysis of Attributes
Mimbres Black-on-White, Melamine or Wedgewood? A Ceramic Use-Wear Analysis
Stability and innovation in pottery manufacture
The History and Philosophy of Technology
Material Culture
Painterly Maiolica of the Italian Renaissance
Cultural Imperatives and Product Development
Taking Charge
Gender and prehistoric technology
Analysis of Style in Artifacts
Organization and Formation Processes
A Formal Approach to the Design and Assembly of Mobile Toolkits
Some Relationships between Behavioral and Evolutionary Archaeologies
Organic-Tempered Pottery
The Structure of Archaeological Theory
Use of a Falling-Weight Tester for Assessing Ceramic Impact Strength
The Optimal Design of Hunting Weapons
Style and Social Information in Kalahari San Projectile Points
Experiments in Ceramic Technology
The Identification of Vessel Function
Ceramics and Man
Archaeological Context and Systemic Context
North American Cooking Pots
The Development of Prehistoric Grinding Technology in the Point of Pines Area, East-central Arizona
A Provisional Theory of Ceramic Abrasion
Ceramic Form and Function
Schools, Pots, and Potters
Social Anthropology of Technology
Theory and Experiment in the Study of Technological Change
Energetic efficiency and hand tool design
| Unique citing works | 225 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,02 |
| Citation span | 1970 - 2026 (57) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 184 |