Cumulative Culture

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A thatched roof under repair seen from the scaffold, one bay stripped to bare rafters and battens beside a finished dressed coat, with a single yealm of combed wheat reed sitting proud on the boundary course

Apprenticeship as Information Transfer

A technique survives only if it is copied faithfully enough to be improved upon. Thatching, transmission-chain experiments and the unsettled population-size debate show why craft skill has always travelled through people rather than pages.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 9, 2026 · 17 min read

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