Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory

"Stone tool analysis relies on a strong background in analytical and methodological techniques. However, lithic technological analysis has not been well integrated with a theoretically informed approach to understanding how humans procured, made, and used stone tools. Evolutionary theory has great potential to fill this gap. This collection of essays brings together several different evolutionary perspectives to demonstrate how lithic technological systems are a by-product of human behavior. The essays cover a range of topics, including human behavioral ecology, cultural transmission, phylogenetic analysis, risk management, macroevolution, dual inheritance theory, cladistics, central place foraging, costly signaling, selection, drift, and various applications of evolutionary ecology"--

Part I. Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory -- 1. Interpreting lithic technology under the evolutionary tent / William Andrefsky, Jr and Nathan Goodale -- Part II. Culture History and Phylogenetic Evolution -- 2. Graphing evolutionary pattern in stone tools to reveal evolutionary process / R. Lee Lyman -- 3. Theory in archaeology : morphometric approaches to the study of fluted points / Michael Shott -- 4. Innovation and natural selection in Paleoindian projectile points from the American Southwest / Todd L. VanPool, Michael J. O'Brien and R. Lee Lyman -- Part III. Applications of Behavioral Ecology to Lithic Studies -- 5. A case of extinction in Paleoindian archaeology / Charlotte Beck and George T. Jones -- 6. The North China Nanolithic / Robert L. Bettinger, Christopher Morgan and Loukas Barton -- 7. When to retouch, haft, or discard? Modeling optimal use/maintenance schedules in lithic tool use / Chris Clarkson, Michael Haslam and Clair Harris -- 8. Procurement costs and tool performance requirements : determining constraints on lithic toolstone selection in Baja California Sur / Jennifer Ferris -- 9. A model of lithic raw material procurement / Raven Garvey -…