Beyond the Marsh: Settlement Choice, Perception, and Spatial Decision-making on the Georgia Coastal Plain
Year: 2010
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: When we consider the intrinsic value of land units (or cells) in an archaeological analysis of landscape, settlement choice, or site selection, we tend to develop models which use static, unchanging costs or benefits, or which rely on least common denominators for a wide range of human actions or time frames.This is naturally driven by the tendency to find correlative evaluations as the most comforting means of both hypothesis building and hypothesis testing.Correlative approaches used in such applications as "inductive" predictive models are inherently reductionist and typically global-inferential.In actual application, though, cell-based attractors are dynamic and distinctly contextual.Thus, we need to develop models which can provide an egocentric, rather than a global, frame of reference, and which are explanatory rather than merely correlative.The first steps in this direction are provided by agent-based models; however, even agent-based models utilize fixed frames of reference, or tools that rely on universal knowledge and global decision-making.Likewise, the acceptance of large dataset correlation testing, or training sets, as the primary means for assessing model success (even in agent-based models or neural network applications) precludes approaches which deal in sequential actions, local behaviors, or unique site types.Here we develop a model which uses cell-based analysis in several ways.First, attractor values are derivative of perception, the interface of knowledge and confidence in that knowledge.Second, spatial decision-making is temporally sequential; thus proximity tempers attractor values.Third, the scale of decision-making distinctly relies on both immediate and long-range planning and returns.These concepts will be illustrated with data from the Coastal Plain of Georgia (USA) and placed in the context of adaptations to a seemingly homogenous cultural and ecological landscape.
Authors: Whitley, Thomas, Moore, I., Goel, G., Jackson, D.
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2620882371