From culture difference to a measure of ethnogenesis: The limits of archaeological inquiry

Abstract

The existence of cultural differences and similarities between human populations has long been a major topic of investigation for social scientists. In this paper we analyze the concept of ethnicity as a relational frame of reference used by groups of people to consider themselves “similar” or to be explicitly differentiated by others. Although it is more a belief than a material feature, ethnic identity constrains human behavior, and therefore, some material consequences of social action are linked to some forms of identity. We discuss how to convert observable differences in the archaeological record into a measure of ethnogenesis and social fractionalization. We explore new ways of transforming archaeological data in the form of the presence/absence of distinctive cultural features into a metric space of social identities. An agent-based computer simulation is presented, showing how social fractionalization, social polarity, and conflict can emerge from the dynamical nature of cultural differences and similarities. Our model suggests that the more inter-generational knowledge transmission among socially aggregated individuals in the past, the greater the similarity in the social activity performed by agents in the present, and the same for their territoriality and the way frontiers and social networks can be negotiated.