The analysis of stylistic variation on prehistoric artifacts has been a major component of archaeological research for decades, and the amount of literature that has been generated is immense. It would be extremely difficult for a single monograph to discuss all of the different issues that have been raised concerning stylistic variation and this study does not attempt to do so. Rather, it is an attempt to deal with one primary topic, the explanation of patterns of stylistic variation, which I feel has not received enough attention in previous analyses, particularly many that have been carried out in the last two decades.

Many types of inferences about the past and several methods of measuring characteristics of prehistoric human adaptive systems are based on patterns of stylistic variation and on assumptions about the factors which cause that variation. However, these assumptions are oversimplified in many instances and have not been adequately tested. Given this problem and the importance of patterns of stylistic variation in archaeological inferences, we must begin to try to understand the full range of factors that determine degrees and patterns of stylistic variation rather than to assume that these factors are already known. This study is an attempt at an initial step in that direction.