[Bonetools] Info and thoughts on craft learning

[Christian Gates St-Pierre]

Dear Liye,
That's a very interesting question, especially the binary learning system you describe. I don't know of any other instance of such a system, unfortunately. However, I have addressed the issue of technological learning, and more especially the social sharing or technological knowledge regarding bone tool production in a publication of mine, which I place in attachment to this message (sorry for the self-promotion). Hope this helps.
Christian

Christian Gates St-Pierre
Professeur adjointDépartement d'anthropologieUniversité de Montréal
Pavillon Lionel-Groulx
C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-ville
Montréal, Québec, Canada
H3C 3J7
514.343.6111, poste 51711 

    On Thursday, September 16, 2021, 01:23:44 p.m. GMT-4, Liye Xie <liye.xie at utoronto.ca> wrote:  
 
  
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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