  The application of phylogenetic techniques to the documentation of cultural
history can present a distorted picture due to horizontal transmission and
blending. Moreover, the units of cultural transmission must be communicable
concepts, rather than conveniently measurable attributes, and relatedness
between elements of culture often resides at the conceptual level, something
not captured by phylogenetic methods, which focus on measurable attributes.
(For example, mortars and pestles are as related as two artifacts could be,
despite little similarity at the attribute level.) This paper introduces a new,
cognitively inspired framework for chronicling material cultural history,
building on Lipo's (2005) network-based computational approach. We show that by
incorporating not just superficial attributes of artifact samples (e.g.
fluting) but also conceptual knowledge (e.g. information about function), a
different pattern of cultural ancestry emerges.
