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Finding a Place for Networks in Archaeology

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Formal network analyses have a long history in archaeology but have recently seen a rapid florescence. Network models drawing on approaches from graph theory, social network analysis, and complexity science have been used to address a broad array of questions about the relationships among network structure, positions, and the attributes and outcomes for individuals and larger groups at a range of social scales. Current archaeological network research is both methodologically and theoretically diverse, but there are still many daunting challenges ahead for the formal exploration of social networks using archaeological data. If we can face these challenges, archaeologists are well positioned to contribute to long-standing debates in the broader sphere of network research on the nature of network theory, the relationships between networks and culture, and dynamics of social networks over the long term.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Archaeological Research (2019) 27:451–499
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09127-8
1 3
Finding aPlace forNetworks inArchaeology
MatthewA.Peeples1
Published online: 4 February 2019
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract
Formal network analyses have a long history in archaeology but have recently seen
a rapid florescence. Network models drawing on approaches from graph theory,
social network analysis, and complexity science have been used to address a broad
array of questions about the relationships among network structure, positions, and
the attributes and outcomes for individuals and larger groups at a range of social
scales. Current archaeological network research is both methodologically and theo-
retically diverse, but there are still many daunting challenges ahead for the formal
exploration of social networks using archaeological data. If we can face these chal-
lenges, archaeologists are well positioned to contribute to long-standing debates in
the broader sphere of network research on the nature of network theory, the relation-
ships between networks and culture, and dynamics of social networks over the long
term.
Keywords Social network analysis· Complex networks· Graph theory· Complexity
science· Relational sociology· Material culture· GIS· Agent-based modeling
Introduction
Network methods and models are by no means new to archaeology, but such
approaches have seen a rapid rise in recent years. There have been more archaeolog-
ical network studies published in the past five years than in the previous 50 (Brugh-
mans and Peeples 2017). This newly invigorated enthusiasm for networks in gen-
eral and formal network analyses in particular echoes similar trends in many other
fields over the last two decades (Borgatti etal. 2009; Freeman 2004; Knoke and
Yang 2008; Newman 2011; Scott and Carrington 2011). The specific motivations
for and implementation of network methods vary widely across research contexts,
but a general optimism regarding the power of networks and network thinking has
* Matthew A. Peeples
Matthew.Peeples@asu.edu
1 School ofHuman Evolution andSocial Change, Arizona State University, 900 S. Cady Mall,
Tempe, AZ85287-2402, USA
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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Networks or Work-nets? Actor-Network Theory and Multiple Social Topologies in the Production of Roman Terra Sigillata
Chapter
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This paper has a threefold aim: to clarify some misunderstandings concerning so-called ‘actor–network theory’ (ANT), to show how ANT can be put to use in archaeology, and to articulate differences from, overlaps, and possible combinations with ‘conventional’ network analysis. The key argument is that whereas networks imply direct and untransformed flows between bounded entities, ANT renders visible the heterogeneous ‘work-nets’ needed to support and stabilize these networks and the entities they connect. Moreover, networks are only one constellation or social topology that can emerge from such worknets, and we thus need to be cautious not to project properties of networks onto other constellations. Finally, ANT introduces a much-needed dynamic approach in which stability and uniformity of categories and flows is the outcome of contingent processes of maintenance work, and not the starting point. This has important consequences for how we conceive of material culture, and hence of our data, in archaeology: archaeological network analysis tends to assume stable, invariable, and comparable things, traits, or properties. One extreme example of this tendency is so-called terra sigillata, a type of Roman pottery that is so easily recognizable and so well-studied that its stability and invariability across contexts and practices is, to a large extent, taken for granted. The problem is that the starting position of sigillata as a category already posits a particular, non-neutral social topology, with certain possibilities for action. By analysing changes and continuities in the practices by which this type of pottery was produced in a single site in central France, however, this paper will explore some of the problems with this assumption, and suggest ways of resolving these issues. Networks. What’s in a word? Following the recent buzz around networks in everyday and academic vocabulary, the answer seems to veer from ‘everything’ to ‘nothing’ and back. Stretched from a lightweight intuition to deepseated theoretical and methodological axioms, the term risks losing all real potential. Cynics are quick to warn that any discipline, theory, or method flying the banner of networks is amalgamated into a melting pot in which implicit, incompatible, or conflicting principles are stirred.
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Dynamics of Contention
Book
  • Sep 2001
In recent decades the study of social movements, revolution, democratization and other non-routine politics has flourished. And yet research on the topic remains highly fragmented, reflecting the influence of at least three traditional divisions. The first of these reflects the view that various forms of contention are distinct and should be studied independent of others. Separate literatures have developed around the study of social movements, revolutions and industrial conflict. A second approach to the study of political contention denies the possibility of general theory in deference to a grounding in the temporal and spatial particulars of any given episode of contention. The study of contentious politics are left to 'area specialists' and/or historians with a thorough knowledge of the time and place in question. Finally, overlaid on these two divisions are stylized theoretical traditions - structuralist, culturalist, and rationalist - that have developed largely in isolation from one another. This book was first published in 2001.
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