Network effects and the flow of information

After reviewing the multiple ways in which we can understand networks and the scales of networks that make up our own and the ancient world, this section

reviews network effects and the way information flows within networks. Network size, structure and composition have considerable impact in the way information is transmitted, innovations are adopted and societies changed. Typically, any indi-vidual’s social network has a small number of strong ties involving high levels of trust and mutual support and a large number of weak ties, loose connections that are not necessarily maintained for substantial periods. Both kinds of ties have their role in the transmission of ideas.

Strong ties, such as family relations and the immediate community people are born and raised in, are important in maintaining traditions. High levels of trust and perhaps an emotional engagement are necessary for some transactions in the network – for instance, borrowing resources when it is unclear if they can ever be repaid, or taking care of children and the elderly. Styles, preferences and embod-ied technologies – knowledge that is usually not made explicit or discursive – are most often transmitted within the community of practice (Kohring 2007) as part of socialisation and upbringing. Strong ties are thus crucial in maintaining the status quo, in transmitting technologies and in keeping traditions alive. Neverthe-less, maintaining traditions is an active and dynamic process, just as innovation and cultural change are too.

Weak ties, on the other hand, are important for rapid transmission of ideas over large distances. Their strength (Granovetter 1973) contributes considerably to the transmission of cultural elements and to innovation. A wide network of weak ties is helpful for the flow of information, for instance, as gossip races through the neighbourhood. For learning about a job opportunity or finding a good doctor, these networks work fine, but they have little changing power; they are links that cannot be depended on for unconditional support.

Allegedly, everybody in this world is connected to everybody else by six or even fewer steps of separation. Complete strangers are linked by a small number of mutual acquaintances, and these links, enabled through ever better means of communication and transport, make the world appear a smaller place. The small-world network, a term made popular by Stanley Milgram’s social experiments in the 1960s (Travers and Milgram 1969), is characterised by short path lengths.

Most interaction takes place at the local scale, but a few, crucial long-distance connections relate to the wider world. This means that only a few steps are neces-sary between distant areas for information to flow quickly. So although the global network is large in terms of numbers, each person in it is linked only to a few; the network is decentralised and highly clustered (Watts 1999a: 495–496).

A small-world network emerges from connecting several small local networks in a specific way. In highly connected clusters (‘isolated caves’ Watts 1999b:

103), all members are connected internally, but not at all externally. Commu-nication takes place only at a local scale. If one internal link of the network is replaced by an external link, however, the local will still be dominant, but infor-mation can flow. If there are many such links, inforinfor-mation flows slowly because there are many steps from one end of the network to the other. Information can become distorted by going through many nodes (the ‘Chinese whispers’ effect).

By adding only a few random long-distance links, far fewer steps are necessary

Theoretical framework 31 between opposite ends of the network and the distance between nodes becomes short. This allows information to flow quickly and preserves the content, as lit-tle distortion of information occurs. A local, yet global, small-world network emerges (Fig. 2.2, Watts 1999a). Small-world networks are neither completely ordered nor completely random; they typically show a high clustering coefficient with many strong, interconnected clusters with a high degree of redundancy. This high degree of redundancy makes most parts of the network highly resilient. The strongly interconnected local clusters are connected by only few links, which are random to a certain degree, but highly significant. Small-world networks do not have a typical size and occur on many different scales.

The princely grave of Hochdorf, Germany (Biel 1985a), illustrates local and global links in an early Iron Age small-world network. Although most of the grave goods are local – some even produced on the spot – the outside world is cited by including exotica such as the drinking horns, couch and the cauldron. The cauldron is a particularly interesting piece of hybrid material culture, as two of the attached lions are (western) Greek like the cauldron (Bieg 2002), but one lion has been replaced by a local imitation, presumably after it was lost. Cultural cita-tions (Helms 1988) such as these associate elites with long-distance travel through which foreign goods and esoteric knowledge are acquired for political advantage and to gain prestige. They illustrate the distant links that tie the Hallstatt commu-nities to the wider world.

Innovation as a cultural process can be triggered either by internal inventions and internal social changes or by the integration of foreign cultural elements. New ideas are most often products of a network rather than appearing ‘fully formed and articulated from a single source’ (Conway and Steward 2009: 93). In either case, innovation crucially relies on the context into which information flows.

Some ideas take off immediately, whereas others never go beyond the experi-mental stage and are given up before they can catch on: the right conditions and a network of links with sufficiently strong connectivity need to be in place for inventions to become embedded as innovative technologies. An ‘innovation net-work’ is characterised by an open network configuration, the presence of bridges and boundary-spanning activity, a diversity of internal and external actors and

Figure 2.2 Connecting cavemen: isolated cavemen, connected cavemen, some local con-nections replaced by global concon-nections (small-world network) (after Watts 1999b: 103, 108)

informal, personal relationships supplementing more formal links (Conway and Steward 2009: 94). It helps if innovation is seen as an advantage; corresponds to norms, experiences and needs of potential adopters; and is relatively easy to notice, understand and test (Hofmann and Patzke 2012: 87). Further, the social statuses of innovators and early adopters are crucial in overcoming potential reluctance to accept change and adopt innovations. Over time, early adopters can be distinguished from late adopters, as well as laggards in the process (Rogers 1958). Absolute numbers of network participants may play a role in the embed-ding of new information, but the adoption of new ideas and technologies involves active agents and elements of decision making: progressive or conservative think-ing may help or hinder innovation.

Knowledge changes as it becomes transmitted. Some of this change includes small, unintentional copy errors and is almost natural; in fact, it has been likened to the process of biological evolution, in which modification of genes and their selection are crucial processes (for example, Eerkens and Lipo 2005, Eerkens and Lipo 2007, Shennan 2002). That cultural traits are, in fact, subject to similar selective pressure as genes is doubtful, as it is not the cultural traits that replicate, but they become replicated through cultural processes. Knowledge and technolo-gies do, however, not only change at random, but also through various processes of directed change. This includes technological improvements or adaptation to local circumstances, environments and materials. It has been noted that cross-craft interaction, the transmission of a technology and style usually used for one material to another (Brysbaert 2007), is an important source of innovation.

As we have seen, the more steps between the nodes, the more likely it is that information becomes lost, distorted or otherwise changed. In the context of this study, it is particularly important to understand the ‘Chinese whispers’ effect when analysing how early Iron Age motifs change as they travel over distance and across different materials. Treating all elements of a human image as units of information, a comparison between the images of a charioteer in two different materials reveals changes in the image, as well as in the essence of the informa-tion that is to be transmitted. The frieze on the situla of Kuffern, a bronze vessel found in an early La Tène grave in Austria (Karner 1891, Lucke and Frey 1962, Nebehay 1993), shows a charioteer with reins in one hand, while he startles the horses with a stick and looks back over his shoulder. The image, carried out in repoussé and chasing technique, depicts the driver in quite some detail. The same motif was found on a large ceramic vessel with conical neck from Rabensburg, Austria (Felgenhauer 1962), but this time made of lines of single, soft impres-sions. This technique sets the resolution to a minimum and forces a focus on the units of information that absolutely have to be transmitted. The non-linear per-spective chosen by the potter for horses and chariot allowed them to be depicted simultaneously from both sides and could therefore clearly state that there are two horses involved, but also that the type of wagon is a chariot rather than a four-wheeled wagon (a significant difference at the time). Other details concentrate on communicating the charioteer’s identity, which is difficult for an image that is barely a stick figure; nevertheless, it is clear that the person is depicted as male, by

Theoretical framework 33

two carefully placed dots just at the right spot and wearing the long, pointed cap typical of chariot drivers (Rebay-Salisbury 2012b).

In this example, the material of the object, the technique of decoration and the perspective are altered as the image crosses the Alps, and yet the essence of the image which addresses the depicted person’s identity is retained. Communicating the social identity of the depicted person and clarifying his social categorisation are the important issues as information travelled through trans-Alpine networks.