Penetrating the 'transitional' category : an 'emic' approach to Lincombian Early Upper Palaeolithic technology in Britain
The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is seen as an important research focus and key to understanding issues surrounding Neanderthal and modern human interactions. Because of this focus upon human type transitional industries without associated human fossil evidence have been marginalised within the debate. This perspective can be termed etic, looking at overall patterns and millennial timescales to answer âbigâ questions. In contrast my research could be termed emic, using a small collection of âtransitionalâ stone tools to explore the perspective of the producers and users. Human type is not considered relevant here. This approach has allowed a shift in scale; from millennial and pan-European to seasonal and the uplands that now constitute Britain. To explore this emic perspective experimental production has been used to make material a manufacturing process. Metrical, formal and typological analysis has been applied to the archaeological type fossil corpus to more fully comprehend variability. Together these approaches have been used to construct a nuanced and comprehensive chĂąine operatoire model for the industry. This model allowed comparative analysis to derive new understandings from
Piprani, John Hassan
Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition ; Lincombian ; LRJ ; Emic
Penetrating the 'transitional' category : an 'emic' approach to Lincombian Early Upper Palaeolithic technology in Britain. The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is seen as an important research focus and key to understanding issues surrounding Neanderthal and modern human interactions. Because of this focus upon human type transitional industries without associated human fossil evidence have been marginalised within the debate. This perspective can be termed etic, looking at overall patterns and millennial timescales to answer âbigâ questions. In contrast my research could be termed emic, using a small collection of âtransitionalâ stone tools to explore the perspective of the producers and users. Human type is not considered relevant here. This approach has allowed a shift in scale; from millennial and pan-European to seasonal and the uplands that now constitute Britain. To explore this emic perspective experimental production has been used to make material a manufacturing process. Metrical, formal and typological analysis has been applied to the archaeological type fossil corpus to more fully comprehend variability. Together these approaches have been used to construct a nuanced and comprehensive chĂąine operatoire model for the industry. This model allowed comparative analysis to derive new understandings from
transitional category emic early upper_palaeolithic technology britain middle_upper_palaeolithic transition see important focus key_issue surround neanderthal modern_human interaction focus_upon human type transitional industry without associate human fossil evidence marginalise within debate perspective term look overall pattern millennial answer big question contrast could term emic use small collection transitional stone_tool explore perspective producer user human type consider_relevant here allow shift scale millennial pan european seasonal upland constitute britain explore emic perspective experimental production_use make material manufacturing_process metrical formal typological_analysis apply_archaeological type fossil corpus fully comprehend variability together approach use construct nuanced comprehensive operatoire model industry model allow comparative_analysis derive new_understanding