DIFFCERAM

In archaeology, it is possible to identify interactions between groups on the basis of diffusion of technical or stylistic traits. However, there is no frame of reference based on empirical data, which enable us to interpret such diffusion in terms of modalities of transmission. As a result, it is difficult to distinguish, for example, between demic and cultural diffusion, which prevents in the long run restitution of the history of cultural dynamics. In order to overcome this problem and enrich archaeological interpretations, the aim of this project is to build up a frame of reference related to the process of diffusion of technical and stylistic ceramic traits. Building this frame of reference will be done with the help of a multi-agent model on the basis of actualist data in order to reconciliate modelling and empirical approaches. For this purpose, the conditions into which techniques and ceramic styles are transmitted and diffused, will be explored. The hypothesis is that these conditions may correspond to regularities which can be expressed in the following verbal form: “In C (socio-economic context), IF i (interactions) and IF n (nature of the trait), THEN d (diffusion)”. The empirical data shall be collected on several terrains so as to make the parameters vary. For this purpose, comparative ethnoarchaeological inquiries shall be conducted in five different countries - India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroun, and the Philippines. The explanatory mechanisms and the nature of the ceramic traits shall be studied in psycho-social terms by characterizing the methods of learning and transmission of pottery traditions. The set of actualist data will then feed a multi-agent model which will enable us to simulate and explore the conditions into which process of diffusion takes place. Three disciplines will be involved: social anthropology, joining both ethno-archaeologists and anthropologists to collect the empirical data, sociology for formalising the regularities, and experimental psychology to understand the mechanisms underlying the regularities. The results expected are: a) a comparative analysis of the different socio-economic contexts in which ceramic traits did or did not diffuse ; b) a comparative analysis of how ceramic traits are learned and transmitted ; c) a modelling of the conditions in which ceramic traits are diffused (contexts, interactions, nature of the trait) to simulate the observations made on a micro-scale and see their emergent effects on the populational level – of several generations – and bring regularities to light. These regularities, bearing on the context into which interactions prompt transmission, shall be used in the future as frame of reference for interpreting diffusion process in terms of interactions (the unknown variable), and subsequently the dynamics at work in the evolution of cultural traits and cultures.