Thesis
Vital signs: costly signaling and personal adornment in the near eastern early neolithic
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2006
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101908
Abstract
Material culture is a vehicle for social information exchange. In the past, as in modern day, individuals used material culture items to negotiate complex social relationships. In this thesis, I aim to understand how people use signals to negotiate complex interpersonal relationships. In particular, I explore how people were using costly material culture signals to enhance their reproductive fitness. Drawing upon a case study of personal adornment item production and use during the Early Neolithic in the Southern Levant at the site of Dhra', Jordan, I utilize the theoretical framework of costly signaling theory to evaluate how people in the past used particular material culture items to enhance their reproductive fitness. Assessments of the signaling power of material culture items within a continuum of reproductive fitness necessitate investigations into personal adornment production techniques, structure and intensity of production, and archaeological patterning. The signaling power assessments provided by the costly signaling model combined with the archaeological patterning of bead production and use at Dhra', highlights the complexity of the relationship between social information exchange and individual decision-making processes in the past.
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Details
- Title
- Vital signs
- Creators
- Colin Patrick Quinn
- Contributors
- William Andrefsky (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525055101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis