Ashley Lemke. 2022. The architecture of hunting: the built environment of hunter-gatherers and its impact on mobility, property, leadership, and labor. Texas: A&M University Press; 978-1-62349-922-8 [Ressenya de llibre]

[Ressenya de llibre] The complexity of hunter-gatherer societies is an open issue in current anthropological debates. Indeed, as ethnographic and archaeological studies improve our understanding of present and past foraging groups, the usual dichotomous categorisation into 'simple' and 'complex' (based on, for example, mobility patterns, resource management and socio-spatial organisation) blurs. 'It is time to ask what complexity in a simple foraging society really looks like; what does it mean and how does it emerge?' (...

Social processes and Sustainable Development: An application field for complex social networks analysis

Este trabajo pretende poner de manifiesto las potencialidades de aplicar las herramientas, conceptos y metodologías habitualmente utilizadas en el estudio de las redes complejas (Ciencia de Redes) al análisis de ciertos aspectos sociales del Desarrollo Sostenible (prestando una atención especial a aquellos relacionados con la organización social). Para alcanzar dicho objetivo, se ha seguido un procedimiento basado en tres pasos: Primero, destacar el rol de los aspectos sociales en general, y de la organización social en particular, en el DS; Segundo, apuntar de qué manera los conceptos y las herramientas metodológicas adoptadas de la “Ciencia de redes” pueden contribuir al análisis de tales aspectos; y, finalmente, presentar ejemplos particulares de aplicación centrados en tres tipos de procesos sociales relacionados con el DS: La cooperación humana, la resiliencia de los sistemas económicos locales y regionales, y la cohesión social.The objective of this work is to highlight the potentialities of applying tools, concepts and methodologies that are commonly used in the study of complex networks (Science of the Networks) to analyze certain social aspects of Sustainable Development (paying special attention to those ones related to social organization). In order to reach this goal, a three-step procedure has been followed: First, playing up the role of social aspects in general, and the social organization in particular, within SD; Second, indicating how concepts and methodological tools borrowed from the Science of Networks can contribute to the analysis of these aspects; and finally, presenting particular examples of application focused on three social processes related to SD: Human cooperation, the resilience of local and regional economic systems, and social cohesion.Peer Reviewe

El Desarrollo Sostenible como ámbito de aplicación del Análisis de Redes Sociales

L'Anàlisi de Xarxes Socials és un camp de treball que es dedica a l'estudi de les relacions socials (entre individus i/o organitzacions) des d'una perspectiva estructuralista. Darrerament ha experimentat una extraordinària expansió, demostrant la seva utilitat en una àmplia sèrie d'àmbits d'aplicació. Partint d'aquesta situació, aquest article planteja la possibilitat d'incorporar l'Anàlisi de Xarxes Socials al conjunt d'eines de treball i recerca al voltant del Desenvolupament Sostenible.El Análisis de Redes Sociales es un campo de trabajo que se dedica al estudio de las relaciones sociales (entre individuos u organizaciones) desde una perspectiva estructuralista. Últimamente ha experimentado una extraordinaria expansión, demostrando su utilidad en una amplia serie de ámbitos de aplicación. Partiendo de esta situación, este artículo plantea la posibilidad de incorporar el Análisis de Redes Sociales al conjunto de herramientas de trabajo e investigación en relación al Desarrollo Sostenible

El paper de la organització social en la sostenibilitat: noves possibilitats des d'una perspectiva estructuralista

L'aproximació al concepte de sostenibilitat des d'una perspectiva sistèmica implica, necessàriament, tenir en compte la influència que la complexitat intrínseca dels sistemes social i natural exerceix sobre les interaccions entre ells. En aquest sentit, l'organització social no ha rebut tradicionalment tanta atenció com a factor d'incidència ambiental com altres qüestions de caire més tècnic (el reciclatge o la eficiència energètica dels sistemes productius, per exemple). En aquest article, plantejem la idoneïtat de l'Anàlisi de Xarxes Socials (un àmbit de recerca pluridisciplinar centrat en l'estudi de l'organització social des d'una perspectiva estructuralista) com a marc conceptual per a desenvolupar els discursos d'alguns autors que sí han incidit en aquesta qüestió, i presentem alguns exemples de conceptes que poden resultar útils en aquesta línia.Approaching the concept of sustainability from a systemic perspective involves taking into account the influence that the intrinsic complexity of the social and natural systems has on the interactions between them. To date, technical issues (e.g. recycling, the energy efficiency of production systems, etc.) have received more attention as factors that affect the environment than social organization. In this paper, we propose that Social Network Analysis (a multidisciplinary research area focused on studying social organization from a structuralist perspective) is a suitable conceptual frame for developing the ideas of authors who have addressed the link between social organization and the environment. We present some examples of concepts that could be useful in this line of research

Assessing impact and quality from local dynamics of citation networks

International audienceWe show that essentially local dynamics of citation networks bring special information about the relevance/quality of a paper. Up to some rescaling, they exhibit universal behavior in citation dynamics: temporal patterns are remarkably consistent across disciplines, and uncover a prediction method for citations based on the structure of references only, at publication time. Above-average cited papers universally focus extensively on their own recent subfield - as such, citation counts essentially select what may plausibly be considered as the most disciplinary and normal science; whereas papers which have a peculiar dynamics, such as re-birthing scientific works - 'rediscovered classics' or 'early birds' - are comparatively poorly cited, despite their plausible relevance for the underlying communities. The "rebirth index" that we propose to quantify this phenomenon may be used as a complementary quality-defining criterion, in addition to final citation counts

Iberian neolithic networks: The rise and Fall of the Cardial World

Recent approaches have described the evolutionary dynamics of the rst Neolithic soci- eties as a cycle of rise and fall. Several authors, using mainly c14 dates as a demographic proxy, identi ed a general pattern of a boom in population coincident with the arrival of food production economies followed by a rapid decline some centuries afterward in multiple European regions. Concerning Iberia, we also noted that this phenomenon correlates with an initial development of archeological entities (i.e., 'cultures') over large areas (e.g., the Impresso-Cardial in West Mediterranean), followed by a phase of 'cultural fragmentation' by the end of Early Neolithic. This results in a picture of higher cultural diversity as an effect of more limited spread of cultural artifacts. In this work, we propose to apply a network approach to the analysis of material culture. In particular, we consider the spatiotemporal patterns of material culture as an emergent effect of local interaction processes. As recent research has pointed out, the spatiotemporal variability of material culture is an emergent phenomenon resulting from individual and group interactions whose structure resembles those of spatially structured complex networks. Our results suggest that the observed global patterns could be explained by the network dynamics, especially by structural (measured as the betweenness centrality) and geographical position of some nodes. The appearance and disappearance of nodes in speci c posi- tions correlate with the observed changes in the pattern of material culture distribution throughout the Early Neolithic (c. 7700-6700 cal BP) in East Iberia. In our view, this could be explained by the special role played by those nodes facilitating or limiting the information ow over the entire network. Network growth and posterior fragmentation seem to be the key drivers behind these dynamics

Una primera aproximació a la caracterització de la ceràmica andalusina de la fortalesa d’Orpesa (Castelló)

Aquest treball presenta els primers resultats fruit de l’inventari, catalogació i estudi del registre ceràmic de cronologia andalusina aparegut durant les excavacions arqueològiques dutes a terme a la fortalesa d’Orpesa (Plana Alta, Castelló) entre els anys 2011 i 2017. Aquestes intervencions s’han d’adscriure a un projecte més ampli d’estudi i posada en valor d’aquest important monument, amb l’objectiu principal d’entendre l’organització de la fortificació i les diverses fases constructives que va patir. Durant aquestes campanyes anuals s’han documentat àmplies zones del castell en extensió, intervencions que han donat peu a noves hipòtesis de treball i han permés formular una interpretació inèdita del recinte gràcies al voluminós i significatiu material arqueològic i arquitectònic documentat.This text presents the first results of inventory, classification and study of medieval islamic pottery from the excavation of the castle of Orpesa (Plana Alta, Castelló), between 2011 and 2017. These works connect to a broad scope of action, focused on understanding the internal organisation of the fortress and its constructive phases. During the archaeological dig, wide areas of the fortification have been documented, emerging new hypotheses from there and allowing us to reformulate the interpretation of the settlement. The key to new optics on the castle were the bulky and significant architectonic and archaeological record recovered through those campaigns