JIA2010 [Sesión- Demographic processes and cultural change]

JIA2010 UAB,

5-7 de Mayo de 2010

Demographic processes and cultural change:

archaeological perspectives

Motivations
In order to reconstruct the cultures of the past, archaeology mainly investigates the material
remnants that survive in what L. Binford had called the “static record”. This evidence
consists mostly of the more robust elements of material culture, supplemented by the
organic data for past environments and, to a lesser degree, by the surviving skeletal vestiges
of the people themselves. It is true, however, that there is no quick or easy way by which
population structure, size or dynamics can be inferred from these kinds of archaeological
data. Frequently, a large number of confounding factors, as the differential deposition, the
preservation and recovery of archaeological remains, work together to turn samples
incomplete and unreliable, while, moreover, indirect evidence for population numbers
(such as settlement size) is amenable to a variety of conflicting interpretations.
Nevertheless, traditionally, the extent of settlements and site catchment areas as well as
measures of the exploitation, consumption, and discard of materials and artifacts, have been
used as proxies for the estimation of past population size and density. In recent years this
evidence has been supplemented by increasingly large data sets compiled from radiocarbon
dating programs, from stable isotopes studies and DNA and genetic approaches. These data
sets have been used to investigate demographic waves of advance during periods of
 JIA2010 [Sesión- Demographic processes and cultural change]

colonization and cultural change and to detect episodes of population decline, extinction,
and hiatuses in settlement history.
Research in this field is, undoubtedly, interdisciplinary, incorporating results from, among
others, anthropology, paleogenetics, human ecology, paleotechnology and ethnographic
studies. As A. Chamberlain (2006) states, the central questions addressed by archaeological
demography include:
• the establishment of methods for inferring past population structure;
• the timing of the emergence of modern human demographic systems;
• the relative importance of health and disease patterns;
• and the search for adaptive explanations for demographic transitions, colonization
events, and population extinctions.

Goals
The main goal of this session is sharing archaeological perspectives on demographic
processes and their involvement in the cultural patterns of human communities over time.
No particular area of study or cultural/chronological period is addressed to allow the
contribution of a wider range of participants. It will be encouraged the dialogue between
the participants about theoretical and practical questions like the implications of
demography in the concept of territoriality, the role of paleopathology and archaeology of
health and disease in demographic interpretations, settlement patterns, population mobility,
among others.

Discussion points
• The demographic inference from archaeological data: theory and practice
• Processes of migration vs. cultural diffusion vs. indigenous cultural innovation
• New approaches to the demographic deduction in archaeology
• Demography and disease
• Evolutionary and genetic palaeodemography
• The relevance of demography for archaeology
• Challenges for the future of archaeological demography
 JIA2010 [Sesión- Demographic processes and cultural change]

Session coordinators

JOÃO CASCALHEIRA
jmcascalheira@ualg.pt
Departamento de História, Arqueologia e Património
FCHS, Universidade do Algarve ‐ Campus Gambelas – 8005 Faro
Tel.: +351912468699

Interested Participants

João Cascalheira [jmcascalheira@ualg.pt] ‐ O Solutrense final de influência

mediterrânica: migração vs. difusão cultural
Célia Gonçalves [ceelin@hotmail.com] – Mobilidade e adaptação no Epipaleolítico e
Mesolítico de Portugal
Vanessa Campanacho [Vanessa_campancho@hotmail.com] – O papel da análise
paleopatológica na interpretação dos processos demográficos
Carolina Mendonça [mendoncarolina@hotmail.com] – Territorialidade e uso do espaço
no Tardiglacial do Algarve