How do we avoid imposing the present on the past when modelling spatial interactions?

Abstract

Theoretical archaeological modelling for describing spatial interactions often adopts contemporary socioeconomic ideas whose 20th-century language gets translated into historical behaviour with the simplest of lexicons. This can lead to the impression that the past is like the present. Our intention in this paper is that, when this happens, we strip out as much of the contemporary context as we can, to bring modelling back to basic epistemic propositions. We suggest that although the underlying ontology may be specific to contemporary society the epistemology has much greater generality, leading to essentially the same conclusions without the carapace of intricate economics. IZVLE∞EK – Teoreti≠no arheolo∏ko modeliranje za opis prostorskih interakcij pogosto sprejema sodobne dru∫benoekonomske ideje, ki jih iz njihovega jezika 20. stoletja prevajajo v zgodovinska vedenja le z najpreprostej∏im besedi∏≠em. To daje vtis, da je preteklost podobna sedanjosti. Na∏ namen v tem prispevku je zaznati ta pojav in ga v najbolj∏i meri o≠istiti sodobnega konteksta, da lahko modeliranje vrnemo k osnovnim epistemolo∏kim nastavkom. Predlagamo, da ima epistemologija ve≠jo generalizacijo, ≠eprav je osnovna ontologija zna≠ilna za sodobno dru∫bo, kar vodi v bistvu do enakih zaklju≠kov brez ogrodja zapletene ekonomije.