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SUMMARY:Modeling ‘The Dawn of Everything’: how simulating a complex ye
 sterday might (or might not) help us with a complicated tomorrow - Dr John
  Murphy\, Northern Illinois University and Argonne National Laboratory
DTSTART:20220519T150000Z
DTEND:20220519T163000Z
UID:TALK173141@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lydia Clough
DESCRIPTION:Water management has been a challenge in the arid deserts of t
 he southwestern U.S. for millennia. In this seminar I will present two sim
 ulations that have examined water management in the area around what is to
 day Phoenix\, Arizona\, USA. One was designed to understand the operation 
 of the prehistoric canal system that for several centuries linked a collec
 tion of villages along the Salt River\; the other examined modern water ma
 nagement among the collection of municipalities surrounding Phoenix proper
 . The tool used for both was Agent-Based Modeling (ABM). ABM flexibly allo
 ws explorations of possible socio-ecological strategies at multiple scales
  and of varying composition. However\, ABM also has limitations that are n
 ot always fully recognized or explicated\, leaving its role and trajectory
  within archaeological theory and practice uncertain.\n\nTo examine this\,
  I will consider the potential of ABM in light of 2021’s The Dawn of Eve
 rything\, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This new book asserts that a
 rchaeologists have failed to recognize swaths of complex and effective soc
 ial forms and their associated archaeological signatures. Using the two si
 mulations as examples\, I will consider two opposing positions: First\, th
 at ABM\, as part of a ‘Model-Based Archaeology\,’ is well-positioned t
 o address the issues raised by Graeber and Wengrow and is the correct tool
  to understand the wider variety of social arrangements they posit. But se
 cond\, that the questions raised by Graeber and Wengrow are questions that
  ABM is ill-equipped to answer. The resolution to this carries implication
 s for the broader project of applying our knowledge of the past to today
 ’s social and environmental challenges.\nRegister: https://cam-ac-uk.zoo
 m.us/meeting/register/tJYpdeiqpjguHdXBdalqEVNu5EonIyMF5iQs
LOCATION:Zoom
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