Towards An Ecology of Evolving Skills

Abstract

Abstract From an ecological point of view, archaeological and cognitive sciences share one common goal: We must account for how to control encounters with the surfaces, substances, plants, animals, and events of the environment that we are, like it or not, obliged to cope with and use as a species, as individuals, and as groups of individuals in the past and present. The ability to control encounters with the environment to achieve particular functional outcomes is called “skill.” The purpose of this chapter is to suggest some directions for coming to grips with the ecology of skill. Taking my cue from James Gibson’s ecological approach to perception, I argue that the study of skill requires an approach that takes into account the whole system of relations constituted by the presence of the developing organism-person in a richly structured environment selected and modified by a unique population. Adopting an ecological perspective, this chapter presents empirical research on the development of craft skill as it pertains to archaeology, using two key examples—stone knapping and pottery—that had significance in the evolution of the habits of human life. By referring to empirical evidence, this chapter highlights the primacy of rich possibilities offered by the environment toward the use of which skills evolve.