Project description
Unveiling sustained voluntary collaboration
The role of voluntary human cooperation has been invaluable throughout history. Archaeological studies on collective activities have focused mainly on actions imposed by the state, hierarchical structures or collaboration on simple technologies that enable survival. But, how can complex or "luxury" technological systems be sustained in the absence of coercive political administrations? The EU-funded REVERSEACTION project will address hypotheses on the links between cooperative technologies, cross-craft collaboration, resilience, ritual, and the emergence of innovations. It will focus on complex archaeological technologies from stateless societies of pre-Columbian America and develop world-wide comparisons. REVERSEACTION will apply archaeological science methods and environmental studies to reverse engineer archaeological artefacts, and explore collaborations with anthropology, sociology, management studies and crafts.
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Funding Scheme
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantHost institution
CB2 1TN Cambridge
United Kingdom