Chaos in Archaeology - Ch.4 Chaos in Archaeology 4. Avenues of enquiry From the Aztecs to the Annales school people have always seen cycles in history, in nature and in science, but the principles of chaos show us that these are not the simple, repetitive cycles obeying the models we have traditionally constructed to allow us a better understanding of our world.
Reality is infinitely more subtle, complex and beautiful.
Also, we must restrict ourselves to phenomena for which there is an significant amount of data, the iterative processes that can display strange attractors can not be seen without a large number of iterations. Also population considerations applied to livestock. Populations, the flow of groups, the number off individuals and their age distribution. Social structure, specialisation, relations of power, trade and kin, unequal distribution of resources, gender politics, notions of group identity etc. All of this has to be seen through the unreliable medium of material culture.