A. L. Kroeber and the Measurement of Time's Arrow and Time's Cycle

Bibliographic Data

ID7840954
AuthorsR L Lyman (0000-0003-2651-7959), Judith L Harpole
Year2002
Volume58
Issue3
Pages313-338
Publication date2002-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/jar.58.3.3631180
OpenAlexW2323908558
LanguageEN
Citations received11

A. L. Kroeber invented frequency seriation in 1916 to measure the passage of time. This chronometer measured the flight of time's arrow with artifact types that changed their relative frequencies in a uniform fashion over what seemed, on the basis of other evidence, to be the linear passage of time. In 1919 and again in 1940, Kroeber sought to measure cycles of cultural phenomena over time and chose a different method for doing so. This method, now termed time-series analysis, was implemented by plotting the averages of several metric dimensions of a kind of artifact against their known age. Kroeber observed recurring averages and concluded that cultural phenomena cycled through time. Frequency seriation and time-series analysis as implemented by Kroeber comprise significant differences in the units they use, their protocols, and their analytical goals

Archaeology · Arrow · Arrow of time · Artifact (error) · Measure (data warehouse) · Metric (unit) · Physics · Seriation (archaeology) · Series (stratigraphy) · Statistics · Advanced Text Analysis Techniques · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Engineering · Geology · History · Mathematics · Paleontology · Time Series Analysis and Forecasting

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