Human Behavioral Ecology (Other Keyword)
101-125 (131 Records)
Dense human settlements often emerge following a shift to agricultural economies, yet researchers still debate the underlying cause of this pattern. One driver may be what is known in ecology as an Allee effect, a positive relationship between population density and per capita utility. Allee effects may emerge with economies of scale such as those created by some forms of intensified food acquisition and production. Thus, in an Allee-like setting, individuals belonging to larger groups enjoy the...
Small Carnivore Use in the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Kephalari Cave (Peloponnese, Greece): Opportunistic or Optimal? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Do Good Things Come in Small Packages? Human Behavioral Ecology and Small Game Exploitation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Late Pleistocene of southern Greece adheres to many predictions set forth by human behavioral ecology concerning the use of small game in the face of demographic growth, ecological change, and advancements in procurement technologies. In Peloponnese, an increase in small, fast game use...
Social Boundaries and The Cultural Ecology of Artiodactyl Hunting in Prehistoric Central California (2017)
We use a model developed using Geographical Information Systems software to examine the extent to which the suitability of habitat surrounding archaeological sites in Central California affected hunting decisions for three artiodactyl taxa: elk (Cervus elaphus), deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). Model findings are compared to a database of 100 archaeofaunal assemblages from the same area. We find that the model predicts the presence and relative abundance of elk...
The Socio-Ecological Determinants of Community Centers (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Applications of Network Analysis" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Community centers often play a dual role in archaeological contexts, as a civic space where individuals can participate in shared rituals and exchange and as a residential space connecting a large number of unrelated households. Given that these two roles are not perfectly coincident with each other, it is interesting to consider why...
Sourcing a State: A Systematic Survey and Statistical Analysis of Wyoming Archaeological Assemblages of Lithic Raw Materials (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This pilot study will systematize the spatial distribution of lithic raw materials in Wyoming by using statistical methods. It revisits decades of curated assemblages from the University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository and places them on the geological landscape using GIS and cluster analyses. Through a systematic sampling strategy of the lithic raw...
Stable Isotope Evidence of Seasonal Shellfish Harvesting and Consumption in Prehistoric Central California (2017)
Shellfish played an important role in the diet of prehistoric hunter-gatherers of Central California. They were the dominant visible component in the large shellmounds that once lined the San Francisco Bay shoreline. Although Bay shellfish are present at inland sites as well, little is known about the role of shellfish in the diet and lifeways of interior populations that hauled the resource in from the Bay. This study focuses on findings from CA-SCL-330, an inland Late Period site in the Diablo...
Stepping Towards a Paradigm Shift: The White Sands Footprints (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prehistoric footprints indicate presence, behaviour, and the interactions between different animal species. The discovery of footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico has shown how tracks can transform our understanding of American prehistory and crucially the history of its first indigenous inhabitants. In September 2021 we announced...
A Stone in the Hand Is Worth How Many in the Bush? Applying the Marginal Value Theorem to Understand Optimal Toolstone Transportation, Processing, and Discard Decisions (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Obtaining and transporting material for manufacturing flaked stone tools comes at a cost. Numerous studies evaluate how processing may reduce transport costs, often using theory from optimal foraging theory such as central place foraging and field processing models. However, to date these studies do not adequately address the continued reuse of toolstone...
Swordfish Hunting as Prestige Signaling within Middle Holocene Fishing Communities of the Atacama Desert Coast? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since around 8500 years BP, the archaeological record on the Southern Coast of the Atacama Desert shows evidence of growing population density and low residential mobility. A maritime specialization process is also evident by a rich set of specialized tools, and a pronounced increase...
Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene Exploitation of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in the Bonneville Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Behavioral Ecology and Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite extensive study of prehistoric human foraging behavior in the Bonneville basin, little is known about human exploitation of birds, as many of these analyses focus on the hunting of mammalian prey and present models of diet breadth that are limited to artiodactyls and lagomorphs. This study uses the prey choice model of foraging theory to...
Testing Theoretical Approaches for Inferring Hominin Behavior at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis and Human Origins: Archaeological Perspectives" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent debates in anthropology surround the utility of human behavioral ecological (HBE) approaches for inferring archaeological phenomena. Criticisms of popular HBE approaches, including optimal foraging theory (OFT), challenge the assumption that humans will always maximize their behavior. Thus, these...
There and Back Again: A Foragers-Farmers Model of Turkey Domestication (Part I) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Domestication, Husbandry and Management in North America and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The human-domesticate relationship has long been a focus of archaeologists, and advances in archaeological science have revealed the dynamics of husbandry practices. But why domesticate? Evolutionary ecology suggests expanding human populations, depressed habitats, and...
To What Extent Is the Concept of Convergence Applicable to Lithic Technology: An Overview (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For many Paleolithic archaeologists, it is important to determine whether similar characteristics of lithic artifacts and/or assemblages resulted from convergent evolution because this may help us better understand the evolutionary developments of stone artifact technologies from H....
A Traditional Approach to Analyzing Stunted Femoral Growth in Peruvian Highlands (2018)
Minimal research has been done on observing whether there have been incidences of stunted growth in populations, in times of environmental stress and social turmoil. One such example are the populations found during the Late Intermediate Period (~AD 1000-1400, LIP) in the South-Central Peruvian highlands. Utilizing Buikstra and Ubelaker’s Standards, nine measurements were taken on the femora of 37 individuals (N=37) from the sites of Sonhuayo, Masumachay, and Mina Cachilhuancaray in the...
Understanding Changes in Lagomorph Proportions within the Homol’ovi Settlement Cluster, Northeast Arizona (2018)
Lagomorphs (rabbits and hares) were a critically important dietary resource for inhabitants of the pre-contact American Southwest, where they typically dominate faunal assemblages. It is useful to examine proportions between genera of lagomorphs—specifically, cottontails (Syvilagus sp.) and jackrabbits (Lepus sp.)—to elucidate information about the past environment and how it might have changed in response to human actions. Based on habitat preferences and predator evasion strategies, the...
Understanding Prearchaic Mobility and Settlement Patterns: The Role of Theory, Models, and Ethnographic Analogies (2018)
Most evidence suggests that Prearchaic hunter-gatherers were highly mobile, and equipped with a hunting oriented lithic technology that lacked milling equipment. Nonetheless, they acquired a broad spectrum of prey and tended to camp near wetlands rich in small game and plant resources. Archaeologists have questioned to what degree this evidence reflects an adaptation that fundamentally differed from ethnographically observed patterns in the Great Basin, as well as whether it was shaped primarily...
Updating the Late Pleistocene Record of the Willamette Valley, Oregon (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Future Directions for Archaeology and Heritage Research in the Willamette Valley, Oregon" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Near the end of the Pleistocene, 35 genera of mostly large mammals became extinct in North America, yet the cause of these extinctions remains debated. The Willamette Valley in western Oregon boasts a robust record of up to nine megafaunal taxa (*Mammuthus, Mammut, Equus, Paramylodon, Megalonyx,...
Using Food Web Models to Examine Desert Networks in the American Southwest and Western Australia (2018)
Archaeological studies benefit from rich ecological data, yet linking ecological data to narratives of the past can be difficult. Here I use trophic network modeling to understand both Ancestral Pueblo and Australian Aboriginal food webs, comparing these systems for a greater understanding of human and environmental resilience. Here I show that Ancestral Pueblo people connected themselves into a greater environmental web and use network analysis to examine how the changing network properties of...
Vegetation Survey Methods at Inland Shell Mound Sites (2024)
This is an abstract from the "*SE The New Normal: Approaches to Studying, Documenting, and Mitigating Climate Change Impacts to Archaeological Sites" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Reconnaissance and initial phase fieldwork for the Gulf Resilience COPE Research HUB began in 2022 and continued in Summer 2023. Experimental investigations into potential variations in vegetative vigor, abundance, diversity, and density at a local archaeological site...
The Viability of Long-Distance Acorn Transport in Eastern California (2017)
The ethnographically documented Mono Lake Paiute of Eastern California regularly crossed the Sierra Nevada to procure acorns from Yosemite Valley; a total journey of fourteen days. It is not clear whether such trips are economically efficient in their own right, or were undertaken as components of social excursions to visit and trade with the Yosemite Me-Wuk, or as journeys of necessity in years with poor piñon pine nut harvests. To evaluate the economic productivity of procuring acorns from...
Wetland Maize Farming by 6000 BP Gave Way to Upland Farming with the Rise of Ancient Maya Settlements and Political Centers (2023)
This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent research in the American neotropics suggests that cultivation of plants for food began early in the Middle Holocene (ca. 7500 BP) and continued for millennia prior to the adoption of surplus agricultural production of domesticated staple foods by 5000 BP in South America and 4000 BP in the Maya lowlands. Data...
Whales, Chiefs, and Seal Stomachs: Understanding Ceramic Adoption in the Kodiak Archipelago (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study uses technological investment thinking and experimental archaeology to examine decision of the socially complex hunter-gatherers of the Kodiak Archipelago to adopt ceramics, ca. 500 cal BP. This decision is puzzling for two reasons: a) ceramic adoption on Kodiak lags centuries behind its adoption on the adjacent mainland, and b) evidence of...
What Can We Learn from Nearly 50 Years of Accumulated Data on the Kcal Return Rates Achieved by Hunters Encountering Terrestrial Game? (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Behavioral Ecology and Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the mid-1970s the biologist D. Griffiths proposed that body size determines prey return rates and, citing the diet breadth model, D. S. Wilson stated that the lowest-ranked prey type harvested reveals the general efficiency of the foraging economy. Archaeologists, beginning with Bayham and Anderson, quickly made use of these proposals, initiating a...
What Drives the Variability in MSA Lithic Assemblages from Sibhudu Cave, South Africa (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. After over a decade of excavation and analysis at the Middle Stone Age site of Sibhudu in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the team from the University of Tübingen has established a uniquely complete and well-documented record of cultural change from the end or the Middle Pleistocene until...
What Makes a Forager Turn Coastal? An Agent-Based Approach to Coastal Foraging on the Dynamic South African Paleoscape (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Gram for gram, coastal shellfish have significant benefits over many terrestrial resources. They are higher in calories, fats, and proteins than most plants and are available in denser and more predictable patches than mammals. However, there are costs to foraging coastal shellfish....