Over recent years, the research interests of prehistoric archaeologists have diversified, but lithics (stone tools) remain central to understanding hominin behavioural variation. Approaches to lithic analysis vary from the philosophical to the highly empirical, and there is little consensus on the ‘right’ way to do lithic analysis—or, indeed, whether a universal approach is possible. These different methods and theories operate at multiple levels, from the character of data collection through to higher-level interpretative frameworks. One prominent strand of lithic analysis takes an ‘evolutionary’ perspective. Whether one advocates this evolutionary approach or not, this edited collection will be critical reading for those wanting to understand where the approach comes from, what it means, how it is done and what it tells us about human behaviour in the past.
In outline, Lithic technological systems and evolutionary theory focuses on how lithic technology can be seen as a by-product of human behaviour in an evolutionary framework. The 15 chapters cover a diversity of topics, including cultural transmission, risk management, human behavioural ecology and costly signalling. Slickly produced and well edited, the collection stems from a symposium organised at the 74th Annual Society for American Archaeology meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2009, entitled ‘Evolutionary Approaches to Understanding Stone Technologies as a By-product of Human Behavior’.
After a useful introductory chapter by the editors, the book is divided into three parts: culture, history and phylogenetic evolution (three chapters); applications of behavioural ecology to lithic studies (seven chapters); and cultural transmission and morphology (four chapters). As the editors acknowledge in their introduction, many of the papers are not wholly contained within any single one of these three categories. In this regard, the book is best read as a whole rather than by extracting individual chapters. The key contribution of the book is not that it is groundbreaking in any single aspect, but that it synthesises disparate yet complementary approaches and analyses in an accessible format.
It is useful to consider what is meant by ‘evolutionary’ in the context of lithic analysis. The editors are clear that they use the term in a broad, but ‘Darwinian’, sense. The diversity of approaches shows that the boundaries of the ‘evolutionary’ approach to lithics are hazy—this is not a ‘good clade’, but a pool of broadly similar approaches. The focus on evolution as ‘descent with modification’ is not without problem in the context of lithics, where similarities and differences reflect numerous and variable factors. This is acknowledged by the editors, but throughout the book, there is an assumption that once the ‘noise’ (differential reduction intensity, raw material factors and so on) is removed, what will be left is fairly unambiguous evidence of vertical cultural transmission that can be understood in terms of cladistics. It is arguable, however, that descent relationships need to be demonstrated in a more convincing manner than is commonly the case. In part, this gets to the heart of the somewhat ambiguous way in which the term ‘evolutionary’ is used by the authors; are we talking about the ‘evolution’ of lithic technological systems themselves, or rather investigating lithics that were made by hominin populations upon which evolutionary processes were acting? Hints towards the former, frequently building on the claim of scholars such as Robert Dunnell of a rigid dichotomy between ‘function’ and ‘style’ (selected and not selected, respectively), remain to be more convincingly demonstrated in my opinion. In Palaeolithic contexts, the argument for a distinction between ‘style’ and ‘function’ is by no means self-evident or epistemologically resolved.
Although the contributions to the volume are extremely diverse, a number of themes emerge. The editors and many of the papers use the notion of ‘lithic technological systems’ as a bridge between evolutionary or selective aspects and the archaeological record. Some of the key topics addressed in the book include the use of experimental replication (chapters by Clarkson et al.; Goodale et al.), raw material procurement (Beck & Jones; Garvey; Ferris; Bettinger et al.), retouch intensity (Kuhn & Miller; Shott; VanPool et al.; Bettinger et al.), and variation in North American projectile technologies (Beck & Jones; Kuhn & Miller; Shott; VanPool et al.). Such themes are addressed in different, if not necessarily contradictory, ways. The difference between human behavioural ecology and dual inheritance theory, for instance, is a topic that emerges several times.
Some chapters offer useful summaries of particular approaches, while others offer innovative contributions in their own right. I found chapters such as that of Clarkson and colleagues particularly interesting, combining a robust theoretical basis and experimental design with important findings (e.g. unretouched, unhafted flakes make the most effective wood-scraping tools). Others demonstrate the ability of lithic data to address ‘big picture’ questions, such as the chapter by Bettinger et al. on the origin of agriculture in North China. Kuhn and Miller highlight ways in which different analytical traditions—in this case, technological organisation and human behavioural ecology—can be brought together, rather than promoting one particular approach as superior to any alternative. Quinn's chapter focusing on costly signalling theory shows, in my opinion, the difficulty in dichotomising ‘style’ and ‘function’. At the same time, however, this chapter also provides a good example of an approach rooted in the biological sciences, but one that is specifically adapted to an anthropological setting.
The editors are right to stress in their introduction that there are two poles in lithic analysis: one involves detailed description and the other emphasises rather speculative notions. A middle ground is best achieved by building solid theoretical bases and using appropriate scientific methods. Crucial to the latter is not just hypothesis-testing but the formulation of clear expectations. An evolutionary approach to lithic analysis will show its maturity when it draws largely from its own body of theory, rather than unsystematically borrowing elements developed in the biological sciences. Likewise, research questions need clear experimental designs and model expectations, rather than back fitting ill-defined ‘variability’ to plausible possibilities. This book highlights the growing strength of the still young field of evolutionary approaches to lithic analysis, while also showing how much more remains to be done.
