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There's No Percentage in It: Intersite Spatial Analysis of Bushman (San) Pottery Decorations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Rosanna Ridings  and
C. Garth Sampson
Rosanna Ridings
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275
C. Garth Sampson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Witwatersrand, P.O. WITS, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa, and Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275
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Abstract

Grass-tempered bowls made by the forbears of historical Karoo Bushmen between ca. A.D. 1500 and 1800 were decorated with many different stamp-impressed motifs. Five of the seven observed motif groups appear to be distributed randomly across the 2,000 km2 study area in the upper Seacow River valley, South Africa. When their percentage frequencies per site cluster were mapped, however, localized concentrations appeared. The validity of the percentage concentrations is tested here by unconstrained cluster analysis, which is not subject to the closure effect. Also, several other tests, all avoiding the use of percentage frequency maps, are introduced as alternative ways to deal with unevenly distributed sites and scarce artifacts or traits unevenly distributed among the sites themselves. The results demonstrate that percentage-frequency mapping can produce occasionally spurious and misleading patterns. Because stratigraphic evidence is scarce and inconclusive, and direct dating of sherds has not yet been conducted, a test also is proposed for determining contemporaneity of motif groups.

Résumé

Résumé

Los cuencos con desgrasante de paja hechos por los antepasados del grupo histórico Karoo Bushman durante 1500 a 1800 D.C., fueron decorados con diferentes motivos impresos con sellos. Cinco de los siete grupos de motivos observados parecen estar distribuídos al azar a través del área de estudio que comprende 2.000 km2 de la parte alta del valle del Río Seacow en Africa del Sur. Sin embargo, cuando sus frecuencias de porcentajes fueron mapeadas para cada grupo de sitios, aparecieron concentraciones localizadas. Este artículo examina la validez de dichas concentraciones de porcentajes a través de un análisis de grupos no restringidos, el cual no está sujeto a un efecto terminal (“closure effect”). Además, se introducen varias pruebas que evitan el uso de mapas de frequencias de porcentajes y que constituyen alternativas para tratar con sitios distribuídos de manera desigual y con escasos artefactos o rasgos desigualmente distribuídos entre los sitios mismos. Los resultados demuestran que los mapas de frecuencias de porcentajes pueden producir ocasionalmente patrones erróneos. Debido a que la evidencia estratigráfica es escasa e inconclusa, y que la datación directa de tiestos cerámicos aún no se ha producido, se propone una prueba para determinar la contemporaneidad de los motivos.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 766 - 780
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1990

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