Learning Style Tco Theories Identify Groupthink

Learning Style Tco Theories Identify Groupthink

Learning Style Tco Theories Identify Groupthink

A large part of archaeological interpretation involves explaining stylistic variability within and between sites. One of the goals of archaeology is to understand the reasons that artifacts from one time period and location differ from artifacts from another time period and location. Explaining variability in material culture might ultimately inform social scientists about the human condition. Humans are intimately tied to their material culture and use it in diverse ways for a variety of reasons. Understanding these processes can help us understand how and why styles change today.

Traditional Archaeological Approaches to Style

Traditionally, artifact traits - specific decorative features, shapes, size, and frequencies of certain types within assemblages - were thought of as either functional or stylistic. Functional traits were usually those associated with artifact form (e.g. the size and shape of a ceramic vessel and its usefulness for holding liquids) and stylistic traits as those associated with decoration (e.g. the banding pattern around the neck of a ceramic vessel that does not affect its functionality).

The roles of functional and stylistic traits were thought to be mutually exclusive and subject to different types of explanation.