Forum_2

Date 27th June 2019 starting 13.30h, end approx. 18.00h
Location Haus der Archäologien (Hörsaal), Am Bergbaumuserum 31, 44791 Bochum
Registration is free. Please send an email to: Yiu-Kang.Hsu@bergbaumuseum.de or Peter.Thomas@bergbaumuseum.de to help our planning!
Organised by Yiu-Kang Hsu & Peter Thomas (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum)
Speakers Christopher D. Buckley (Independent Researcher, UK), Louise Iles (University of Sheffield) & Valentine Roux (French National Centre for Scientific Research)
Panel Members Mark Pearce (University of Nottingham), Constance von Rüden (Ruhr-University Bochum), Thomas Stöllner (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum & Ruhr-University Bochum)

The Speakers

Across the Thread of Time: Innovation and Transmission of
Traditional Weaving Technologies in the Asia-Pacific Region

Christopher D. Buckley (Independent Researcher, UK)

In East and Southeast Asia, and many of the Pacific islands, weaving for domestic and ceremonial use was part of daily life until recent times, and some traditions are maintained up to the present day. The variety of loom technologies in the region make an interesting test case for the ways in which technologies are generated, transmitted and maintained over a long period, particularly as these processes are still going on and can be studied ethnographically. Time depths of some key technologies can be estimated from a (limited) number of archaeological remains, particularly from the Asian mainland.
A weaving tradition is a complex phenomenon, which includes the physical techniques (chaîne opératoire) of weaving, as well as social and ritual dimensions. I will review how this complex information is transmitted amongst living weavers in the Asia-Pacific (AP) region. This is characterised by intergenerational (vertical and oblique) transmission processes ‘within community’, contrasting with significant barriers to transmission ‘between communities’. A phylogenetic study of looms in the AP region nevertheless shows that transmission between communities has occasionally occurred in the past. Study of the technologies that were transferred, and the circumstances under which this occurred, suggests that these events happen when there are particular motivating factors at work, such as the production of prestige goods linked with status and commerce.

Reference: Buckley, D.C. and Boudot, E. 2017. The evolution of an ancient technology. R. Soc. Open. Sci. 4:170208.

Invisible Innovations in East African Iron Production

Louise Iles (University of Sheffield )

The secretive nature of iron production activity is frequently referred to in relation to restrictions on participation and a resistance to change. Yet, many of the technologies associated with iron production are far from secret, instead being loud, hot, energetic, smoky activities. As such, cultural barriers are sometimes posited as having been used to conceal these processes and control access to technological space. Less often discussed are the means by which craftspeople might have exploited the sensory aspects of metallurgical processes – such as the sound of the bellows echoing around the hills – to bring people to their production sites, attracting both a labour force and a ready market for the products produced.
Recognising the multifarious drivers of technological change (or, equally, technological ‘stability’) is challenging, even ethnographically. Subtle variations in participation and learning networks influence both the short-term processes of trial and error and the long-term processes through which innovations become established. These delicate signatures are even more difficult to detect in the archaeological and archaeometallurgical records, perhaps even more so when examining the waste products of the production process rather than the finished artefacts. How then can otherwise ‘invisible’ innovations be revealed? Decoding the ways in which production activities are organised, including – crucially – who can participate and who can observe, allows us to consider more deeply how new technologies are adopted, or how existing technologies are adapted: how they change and develop through time.
This paper will explore examples from my research in Laikipia (central Kenya), Bunyoro (western Uganda) and Pare (northern Tanzania), merging ethnoarchaeological, ethno-historic and archaeometallurgical approaches to archaeological datasets. It will consider how the spatial structuring of metallurgical activities may have functioned to facilitate or obstruct formal and informal participation in metallurgical activities, and how that might relate to the accumulation of knowledge and the adoption of new ways of doing, making and being.

Reference: Iles, L. 2018. Forging networks and mixing ores: Rethinking the social landscapes of iron metallurgy. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 49:88-99.

Conditions for the diffusion of technical innovations

Valentine Roux (French National Centre for Scientific Research)

Recent ethnoarchaeological investigations have enabled us to study the conditions favorable to the diffusion of techniques. These conditions are considered as regularities that one can use to understand past phenomena. Three situations have been explored: non diffusion, initial diffusion and diffusion. The case studies focuses on the diffusion of the kiln in countries where open firing was traditionally used. The results obtained enable us to understand archaeological situations such as the diffusion of the potter’s wheel in the Central Levant during the 3rd millennium BC.

References:
Manzo, G., Gabbriellini S., Roux, V. and F. M’Mbogori 2018. Complex Contagions and the Diffusion of Innovations: Evidence from a small-N study. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 25 (4), 1109–1154. (Diffusion).
Roux V., B. Bril, Karasik A. 2018. Weak ties and expertise: crossing technological boundaries. Journal of Archaeo-logical Method and Theory, vol. 25 (4), 1024-1050. (Initial diffusion).
Roux V., B. Bril, J. Cauliez, A.-L. Goujon, C. Lara, Cl. Manen, G. de Saulieu, E. Zangato 2017. Persisting Technological Boundaries: Social Interactions, Cognitive Correlations and Polarization. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 48, 320–335. (Non diffusion).

Innovation and the diffusion of Innovation: Crossroads between Archaeology and Ethnography

June 27th 2019 - Haus der Archäologien (Hörsaal), Am Bergbaumuserum 31, 44791 Bochum

13:30 to 13:40

Welcome

ReSoc

13:40 to 14:00

Introduction

Yiu-Kang Hsu & Peter Thomas, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum

14:00 to 14:45

Conditions for the diffusion of technical innovations

Valentine Roux, French National Centre for Scientific Research

14:45 to 15:30

Across the Thread of Time: Innovation and Transmission of Traditional Weaving Technologies in the Asia-Pacific Region

Christopher D. Buckley, Independent Researcher, UK

15:30 to 16:15

Invisible Innovations in East African Iron Production

Louise Iles, University of Sheffield

16:15 to 16:30

Coffee Break

16:30 to 17:15

Panel Discussion

Christopher D. Buckley (Independent Researcher, UK)
Louise Iles (University of Sheffield)
Mark Pearce (University of Nottingham)
Valentine Roux (French National Centre for Scientific Research)
Constance von Rüden (Ruhr-University Bochum)
Thomas Stöllner (Deutsches Bergbau-Museaum & Ruhr-University Bochum)

Moderation: Yiu-Kang Hsu & Peter Thomas
(Deutsches Bergbau-Museum)

17:15 to 18:00

Open Discussion

Questions and comments from the local audience.

after 18:00

Reception

Snack & Chat open to all participants

Discussion panel

Mark Pearce
Prehistoric Archaeologist
University of Nottingham

Constance von Rüden
Prehistoric Archaeologist
Ruhr-University Bochum

Thomas Stöllner
Mining Archaeologist
Ruhr-University Bochum
Deutsches Bergbau-Museum

Abstract References

Cunningham, J. 2009. Ethnoarchaeology beyond correlates. Journal of Ethnoarchaeology 1 (2): 115–136.

Lyons & Casey. 2016. It’s a material world: the critical and on-going value of ethnoarchaeology in understanding variation, change and materiality. World Archaeology 48:5: 609–627.

Roux, V. 2007. Ethnoarchaeology: a non historical science of reference necessary for interpreting the past. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 14(2): 153–178.

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