The Social Dynamics of Aggregation and Dispersal in the Western Desert
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Abstract
Meg Conkey's (1980) study of decorated antler/bone objects at Altamira formulated explicit test implications for aggregation and dispersal in hunter-gatherer settlement systems. The concept of diversity in design elements was added into an aggregation " mix " of subsistence, social behaviors, and ritual expression. This chapter explores how Conkey's originally defined expectations and predictions for aggregation locales, as derived from Magdalenian rock-shelters, can be transposed into the Australian arid zone. We argue that punctuated style provinces throughout the Western Desert culture bloc provide the context for aggregation in a landscape occupied by groups displaying hypermobility.
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Archaeological implications, testing aggregation behavior and rock art, Australian arid zone, extensive dune fields, gibber and sand plains, Information-exchange theory, and competition between groups, Linguistic stratigraphy, Holocene population change/movement, Notions of style as a social strategy, groups over resources, Social groupings, more complex in the vicinity of water permanency, The social dynamics, of aggregation and dispersal in the Western Desert, Western Desert rock art province, the Jilakurru Ranges and the Martu