Thread by @benjcartlidge

Some tweets from tonight's #ACEflagship seminar, in which Ian Hodder (Stanford) shows us his research on Evolution and Entanglement.

Entanglements have diachronic as well as synchronic elements: some processes in entanglements have to happen in specific sequences (clay - brick - house - eroded colluvian - mortar - house, eg)

Since if this work (eg Hägerstrand) uses this site of model to talk about individuals - what about larger groupings eg of styles? #aceflagship

Brick composition at Catalhöyük shows change in time, so do pottery styles (ie functions) #aceflagship

Is there a way of relating these stylistic changes to pathways through time? Can they be explained /understood diachronically?

Some of this stuff reminds me a lot of cladistic theories in linguistics. #ACEflagship

Styles of pottery can be related to learning through time (again, linguistic model is highly relevant) #ACEflagship

However : social learning doesn't = precise imitation. (indeed). Then what does cause persistence? (In linguistics actually persistence is just a null hypothesis - we don't tend to explain it) #ACEflagship

For social theorists, habitus is the key concept - embedded, entanglements, dependencies #ACEflagship

Interesting to think about this from a text angle - textual composition will depend on materials used (oral composition vs clay tablet) #ACEflagship

Hodder opposing that MLWest idea that "composition happens in the mind" - rather, material engagements have to play a role in why practices happen #ACEflagship

Continuity of house construction < continuity of house material and continuity of desire to build a stable structure. #ACEflagship

Is history the passage of objects through time? Seemingly.... Bricks moving from clay to sand => unstable buildings at Catalhöyük
#ACEflagship

Sandier bricks allows larger buildings to be made though : solutions are found to practical issues. But not a matter of "learning", a matter of changed relations with physical objects #ACEflagship

Entanglements are also a matter of symbolic changes though #ACEflagship

Pottery: changes happen as entanglements deepen. Then again : why do entanglements deepen? Eg why do pots suddenly beginning vessels to cook in, process fat/milk etc in? #ACEflagship

Social and cultural, symbolic changes are part of this deepening of the entanglements (or maybe just the increase of entanglements) of pottery #ACEflagship

Pottery's rise is part of the use of sheep products : feedback loop in which pottery becomes more and more involved as the things you do with pottery become more complex, making pottery more and more essential #ACEflagship

Digging in /around the site to manage products of the site => change =>further entanglements. #ACEflagship

Entanglements are generative (linguists are triggered!!) #ACEflagship

You can track individual things (clay balls, pottery, Phragmites etc) but these things are also linked, correlated - they share pathways at different points and diverge at others #ACEflagship

Clay balls : efficient but absorbing cooking. Pots : less efficient, but the pot doesn't require so much attention. So the cook can do other things. #ACEflagship

(apparently that means houses can get bigger, but I'm not sure I get that)

Lukas & Mol: work on Catalhöyük as a whole to see how changes affect each other through time. #ACEflagship

The evolution of spinning. Whorls to wheels to machines to industrial factory production. #ACEflagship

This has to be done via the entanglements of cotton (long slow start followed by 19th c boom) - rather a grim story in effect.... #ACEflagship

Water frame solves the problem created by the British Empire when Indian spinning and English spinning was brought together. English spinning could only compete by inventing technology #ACEflagship
(hm bit sceptical about the mechanics of this tbh)

Industrial revolution caused by the problems of imperialism #ACEflagship

All these things are assemblages / bundles (linking back to our #ACEflagship seminar with @nmacsweeney on fragments)

Basically this is actually refuting the notion of a family tree to think in terms of a "contaminated tradition", as we'd call it in MS studies #ACEflagship

"Tree of life" vs "tree of culture" - but Hodder argues that bundles create conflicts and then change. (dialectic - conflict creates a synthesis, which is the new reality) #ACEflagship

Diagrams used by Hodder based on electromagnetic field diagrams by eg Whitehead #ACEflagship

Entities are processes, not describable in terms of morphology but in terms of diachronic forces that act on them. #ACEflagship

Grist to the mill of those who wrote diachronic grammars (like me!) #ACEflagship

Larry Barham now gives the first response on behalf of @LivAncWorlds

LB: begins with some comments on how learning works #ACEflagship

LB: can mathematical modelling cope in every case?

LB: handaxe - most persistent artefact. But why should that be?

Are handaxes instinctive? #ACEflagship

Now Violaine Chauvet responds on behalf of Egyptology for @LivAncWorlds

VC: sceptical about quantitative methods for simplifying human life as reflected in material culture #ACEflagship

VC: queries on methodology. How do we define conjunction and correlation? Synchrony / diachrony - when entangled and when coincidental? Can change be autonomous? (really good point) #ACEflagship

VC: needs vs wants - needs (responses to change) while wants effect change for self interest

VC: Egyptology - what roles does/can text play on entanglement? (again really interesting problem) #ACEflagship

VC: Text and Material culture don't always change together - how do we deal with this? #ACEflagship

VC: restricted knowledge : how control of knowledge implicated in change (restricting / enabling)?

VC: patriarchy: @LivAncWorlds subjects are often heavily male and elite - sectors of society have been silenced or underrepresented. Who were things made for? Cs an entanglement theory help with social changes and conflicts in the absence of evidence #ACEflagship

Barnstorming performance by Violaine! @LivAncWorlds #ACEflagship

Correlation vs causation : objects linked because you can invent a story to account for it. Simultaneity then is causation iff you can find a way of explaining both things together #ACEflagship

Needs vs wants : the distinction between cultural and biological wants /needs are too fused to distinguish. #ACEflagship

Cultural changes have influence on the genome (epigenetic and new biology) - so culture and biology can't be distinguished #ACEflagship

Material and text : ideas are connected to the world BUT some pathways are more persistent and therefore allow for entanglements #ACEflagship

Entanglements are multi temporal : things are of different ages at the same time #ACEflagship

Women and silenced voices. More entanglement = more control = more inequality. Gender differentiation supposed to emerge towards the end of the Catalhöyük society (though Hodder dubious this is true). #ACEflagship

Is this about stories that are told rather than what is "actually" happening? #ACEflagship

Questions from the floor are now open #ACEflagship

A question has just been asked "what about missing evidence?"
Answer : "pick sites with lots of evidence" hmmmm
In any case, if entanglements are specific and local and embedded, they aren't models you can just lift up and apply #ACEflagship

Ian Hodder with @LivAncWorlds students

Oh and @preshitorian!!

@threadreaderapp please unroll for @emily_prtak

@LivAncWorlds this is a thread about our - your - Flagship seminar last night. Please retweet it!