Chaîne opératoire (; ) is a term used throughout anthropological discourse, most commonly in
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
and
sociocultural anthropology
Sociocultural anthropology is a term used to refer to social anthropology and cultural anthropology together. It is one of the four main branches of anthropology. Sociocultural anthropologists focus on the study of society and culture, while ofte ...
. The term denotes a description of the stages of production of
material culture—especially
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
and
stone tools made through
lithic reduction—from raw material acquisition to tool production to use to abandonment.
The chaîne opératoire was born out of archaeologists' interest in elevating
lithic analysis beyond simple
typology. Building an object's chaîne opératoire is an important methodological tool. In a chaîne opératoire approach, archaeologists create a full biography of technologies, attempting to understand their craftsmanship and use in different social groups.
[ By understanding the processes and construction of tools, archaeologists can better determine the evolution of technology, model human behavior, and understand the development of ancient cultures. As archaeologists come to understand an object's chaîne opératoire, they better understand human choices and technical traditions.
The concept of technology as the science of human activities was first proposed by French ]archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
, André Leroi-Gourhan, and later by the historian of science André-Georges Haudricourt. Both were students of Marcel Mauss who had earlier recognised that societies could be understood through its techniques by virtue of the fact that operational sequences are steps organised according to an internal logic specific to a society.
Artifact analysis has undergone several changes throughout its history, shifting from an orientation as a natural science of prehistoric humans to a social and cultural anthropology of the production techniques of prehistoric societies.[ From this perspective, a chaîne opératoire can be understood as a social product, as it calls for an ]interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...
approach to artifact analysis (the integration of associated disciplines: archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
, sociocultural anthropology
Sociocultural anthropology is a term used to refer to social anthropology and cultural anthropology together. It is one of the four main branches of anthropology. Sociocultural anthropologists focus on the study of society and culture, while ofte ...
, biological anthropology, and anthropological linguistics), which offers a multidimensional view of a society, and demonstrates how a chaînes opératoire cannot operate independently of the society which produces it.[ Consequently, the study of the technique - or chaîne opératoire - enables one to better understand not only the society in which the technique originated, but also the social context, actions, and ]cognition
Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
that accompanied the production of an object.[
]
Criticism of chaîne opératoire
Critics of chaîne opératoire argue that it is subjective because it is based upon the analyst's personal experience and intuition. They further claim that it is not a replicable or quantifiable approach to data collection. A second objection is that chaîne opératoire claims to be able to identify the intentions and goals of prehistoric knappers, including the "desired endproducts" of knapping sequences. However, what archaeologists select from an assemblage as "end products" may not match what people in the past thought worthwhile to select for transport and subsequent use elsewhere in the landscape. A third major problem with the chaîne opératoire approach is that there is severe inconsistency in the application of definitions by lithic analysts. For example, since the publication of Éric Boëda's definition of six nondisassociable criteria for Discoidal debitage, numerous variants have been proposed, and many authors have argued for the presence of Levallois concept (that Eric defined from features of the Levallois technique) even when those six criteria were not met.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaine operatoire
Anthropology
Archaeology of material culture
lithics