Collecting More Data

Things are looking good this week guys! I’m finally able to start picking out classes at ASU after many many distressing emails, and I’m very excited to be moving forward. I did fall a tad bit behind on my project after dealing with that situation, but I’ll be back on track in no time. I had the pleasure of speaking to one of my previous professors about the kinds of research that have been done for archaeology in conjunction with Netlogo. She discussed how after compiling archaeological data, it can be statistically analyzed in the same fashion as the random, small world, and scale-free models are on Netlogo. Once that has been done, you can look for patterns between the two sets of data and conclude what kind of model the archaeological data follows. This gives insight into what kind of society the information that was collected is from, based on what model it aligns with. A random network is most closely related to an egalitarian society, a society where everyone is relatively equal and lacks defined statuses of individuals. This is typically seen in bands and tribes such as the !Kung San in Southern Africa. Small world networks begin to show the emergence of inequality, with some individuals being held in higher ranks than others. This can be seen in many chiefdoms, such as in precolonial Hawai’i. These two types of societies are not just seen in bands, tribes, or chiefdoms specifically; this is only a generalization for simplicity. The last type of network, the scale-free network, most closely resembles our society and societies where there is a vast amount of inequality. Other examples are the Aztec and the Inca. The emergence of social inequality has always been something I found interesting in my anthropology and archaeology classes. The variations of grave goods, settlement size, specialization of occupations, and interdependency of social units are some of the indicators we looked at in those classes for signs of social complexity and, therefore, inequality. Using network models as another way to examine social inequality is the next step to this and is an interesting interdisciplinary method. The other example that was shared with me was the use of the model that explains virus transmission can also be used to demonstrate how culture spreads through societies. When an aspect of culture is seen in various locations, a type of pottery, for example, the data of where it has been found can be demonstrated through the virus transmission model. Using this type of tool to understand archaeological data and see the relationships that exist between societies and the people in those societies has been really interesting, and I’m looking forward to collecting more data for my project.

(https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Comparison-of-random-small-world-and-scale-free-networks-Topological-structure-of_fig1_320308445)