Evolutionary Archaeology

Abstract

Abstract Evolution, or descent with modification, involves three principles: variation is present in a population, the variants are heritable, and there is a sorting mechanism (or mechanisms) that causes differential survival and reproduction among variants. Evolution works mainly on individuals, occasionally on groups, but what is visible in most cases is not change in individual variants but rather cumulative change in populations of variants over time. In archaeology, evolution is measured in terms of changes in populations of artefacts, which are viewed as phenotypic expressions of human behaviour, which itself is phenotypic. Archaeologists use artefacts to construct historical lineages, or temporal lines of change owing their existence to heritability. They then use those lineages to construct arguments as to which evolutionary process or processes created and later modified them. Asking and answering questions that are historical in nature is the ultimate goal of evolutionary archaeology.