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This paper presents a case-study demonstrating how traditional ethnographic fieldwork may benefit from analysis using computer simulation modeling tools. Paul Willis’ classic ethnography, “Learning to Labor” is represented using the system-modeling software Stella, and used experimentally to test several aspects of the worker-business relationship. I include a description of the models, the rationale for using systems modeling instead of agent-based modeling, and results from two sets of simulation experiments. I describe how the model represents ethnographic data, how it was used experimentally, and implications of the research as a critique of “Learning to Labor.” I close by suggesting that the semantic conception of theories (McKelvey 1999) can be an appropriate model of scientific investigation to link social theory, ethnographic fieldwork, and simulation modeling.

It has long been recognised that the proportions of Neolithic domestic animal species--cattle, pig and sheep/goat--vary from region to region, but it has hitherto been unclear how much this variability is related to cultural practices or to environmental constraints. This study uses hundreds of faunal assemblages from across Neolithic Europe to reveal the distribution of animal use between north and south, east and west. The remarkable results present us with a geography of Neolithic animal society--from the rabbit-loving Mediterranean to the beef-eaters of the north and west. They also demonstrate that the choices made by early Neolithic herders were largely determined by their environments. Cultural links appear to have played only a minor role in the species composition of early Neolithic animal societies. Keywords: Europe, Neolithic, zooarchaeology, herding strategies, food production systems, Introduction The founder species of Neolithic European herding strategies--cattle, sheep, goat and pig--were first domesticated in south-west Asia c. 8500 BC. Alongside domestic crops such as wheat, barley and pulses [...]