Firing Structures and Transition Period in Rajasthan (India, 2005-2015). Unstable Choices before Definitive Selection

2. Firing structures and transition periods in Rajasthan (India, 2005-2015) Unstable choices before definitive selection Valentine Roux Simone Gabbriellini 1. Introduction 1 In prehistory, the so-called transition periods are framed by a before and an after, periods that are culturally well-identifed owing to collections of traits whose inter-site differentiation marks out spatiotemporal outlines. This allows us to characterise cultural groups and give them a cultural and sociological interpretation, that is to say, an interpretation in terms of singular and historical features on the one hand and of population structure on the other. The term ‘population structure’ refers to “instances where individual subpopulations/groups exhibit low within and high between variability” (Shennan et alii 2015: 103). In prehistory, this variability of features clearly distinguishes well-identifed chrono-cultural groups. The mechanism underlying the formation of spatial confgurations signifcant to population structure is cultural transmission, which is done by trainers, often parents, who tend to be selected within one’s social group. Regarding the transmission of techniques, the consequence is that technological boundaries conform to social boundaries (Lave & Wenger 1991; Stark 1998; Gosselain 2000; 2011) thus revealing population structures.