ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the use of phylogenetic analysis to construct an intellectual clade of design iconography using the information embedded within the designs found on prehistoric pottery from western and northern Mexico and the American Southwest. Phylogenetic analysis is a method for tracing the transmission of information in order to reconstruct both biological and cultural clades, or lineages. The trees produced by phylogenetics are essentially hypotheses about the transmission of information. Despite this, phylogenetic analysis can still be used to reconstruct the historical developments of cultural lineages. There are two main reasons: First, phylogenetics cares only that information is passed between individuals and groups and that this information is subsequently used to "build" things—things that may be biological or cultural in nature. Second, phylogenetics constructs lineages by distinguishing between homologous and homoplastic similarities. Typically, a phylogenetic software package is used to construct a tree by analyzing the distribution of the characters and character states within a group of taxa.
