Evolution of the Okvik/Old Bering Sea culture of the Bering Strait as a major transition
Great transitions are thought to embody major shifts in locus of selection, labour diversification and communication systems. Such expectations are relevant for biological and cultural systems as decades of research has demonstrated similar dynamics within the evolution of culture. The evolution of...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 2024-06-02T08:04:21+00:00 Evolution of the Okvik/Old Bering Sea culture of the Bering Strait as a major transition Prentiss, Anna Marie Laue, Cheyenne Gjesfjeld, Erik Walsh, Matthew J. Denis, Megan Foor, Thomas A. 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 378, issue 1872 ISSN 0962-8436 1471-2970 journal-article 2023 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 2024-05-07T14:16:34Z Great transitions are thought to embody major shifts in locus of selection, labour diversification and communication systems. Such expectations are relevant for biological and cultural systems as decades of research has demonstrated similar dynamics within the evolution of culture. The evolution of the Neo-Inuit cultural tradition in the Bering Strait provides an ideal context for examination of cultural transitions. The Okvik/Old Bering Sea (Okvik/OBS) culture of Bering Strait is the first representative of the Neo-Inuit tradition. Archaeological evidence drawn for settlement and subsistence data, technological traditions and mortuary contexts suggests that Okvik/OBS fits the definition of a major transition given change in the nature of group membership (from families to political groups with social ranking), task organization (emergent labour specialization) and communication (advent of complex art forms conveying social and ideological information). This permits us to develop a number of implications about the evolutionary process recognizing that transitions may occur on three scales: (1) ephemeral variants, as for example, simple technological entities; (2) integrated systems, spanning modular technology to socio-economic strategies; and (3) simultaneous change across all scales with emergent properties. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions’. Article in Journal/Newspaper Bering Sea Bering Strait inuit The Royal Society Bering Sea Bering Strait Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 378 1872 |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
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English |
description |
Great transitions are thought to embody major shifts in locus of selection, labour diversification and communication systems. Such expectations are relevant for biological and cultural systems as decades of research has demonstrated similar dynamics within the evolution of culture. The evolution of the Neo-Inuit cultural tradition in the Bering Strait provides an ideal context for examination of cultural transitions. The Okvik/Old Bering Sea (Okvik/OBS) culture of Bering Strait is the first representative of the Neo-Inuit tradition. Archaeological evidence drawn for settlement and subsistence data, technological traditions and mortuary contexts suggests that Okvik/OBS fits the definition of a major transition given change in the nature of group membership (from families to political groups with social ranking), task organization (emergent labour specialization) and communication (advent of complex art forms conveying social and ideological information). This permits us to develop a number of implications about the evolutionary process recognizing that transitions may occur on three scales: (1) ephemeral variants, as for example, simple technological entities; (2) integrated systems, spanning modular technology to socio-economic strategies; and (3) simultaneous change across all scales with emergent properties. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions’. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Prentiss, Anna Marie Laue, Cheyenne Gjesfjeld, Erik Walsh, Matthew J. Denis, Megan Foor, Thomas A. |
spellingShingle |
Prentiss, Anna Marie Laue, Cheyenne Gjesfjeld, Erik Walsh, Matthew J. Denis, Megan Foor, Thomas A. Evolution of the Okvik/Old Bering Sea culture of the Bering Strait as a major transition |
author_facet |
Prentiss, Anna Marie Laue, Cheyenne Gjesfjeld, Erik Walsh, Matthew J. Denis, Megan Foor, Thomas A. |
author_sort |
Prentiss, Anna Marie |
title |
Evolution of the Okvik/Old Bering Sea culture of the Bering Strait as a major transition |
title_short |
Evolution of the Okvik/Old Bering Sea culture of the Bering Strait as a major transition |
title_full |
Evolution of the Okvik/Old Bering Sea culture of the Bering Strait as a major transition |
title_fullStr |
Evolution of the Okvik/Old Bering Sea culture of the Bering Strait as a major transition |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evolution of the Okvik/Old Bering Sea culture of the Bering Strait as a major transition |
title_sort |
evolution of the okvik/old bering sea culture of the bering strait as a major transition |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 |
geographic |
Bering Sea Bering Strait |
geographic_facet |
Bering Sea Bering Strait |
genre |
Bering Sea Bering Strait inuit |
genre_facet |
Bering Sea Bering Strait inuit |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 378, issue 1872 ISSN 0962-8436 1471-2970 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0415 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
378 |
container_issue |
1872 |
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1800748983600021504 |