[Bonetools] Info and thoughts on craft learning

[Liye Xie]

Hello everyone,

I am seeking help from this incredibly resourceful and knowledgeable group.

I am working on a paper on the learning patterns of bone shovel production in the Neolithic Hemudu culture in eastern China. It appears to me that the Hemudu people had a binary system for maintaining their bone shovel tradition, meaning they conformed to the social norms in terms of object style and raw material preference but relied on self-learning to produce the tools. This combination of social learning and self-learning for an object that was likely tied to a group identity seems odd to me. Because, honestly, I naively expected to find evidence for communities of practice or at least some sort of formal training to maintain an almost iconic object of society.

I have been trying to find comparable studies on cultural transmission and ways of maintaining technological tradition. But, unfortunately, the case studies I have seen so far are primarily on pottery and lithic productions. In addition, I couldn't find any mention of a binary learning system as such. Therefore, I wondered if you could point me to relevant publications on bone tools or a binary learning system for any crafts.

I understand everyone is very busy. I would appreciate any information or thoughts you could share.

Thank you.

-Liye

Dr. Liye Xie
Associate Professor & Associate Chair
Department of Anthropology
University of Toronto Mississauga
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Liye-Xie
https://www.anthropology.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/liye-xie/

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