Why Choose Small Packages When There Are So Many Big Packages Around?

Author(s): Lisa Janz

Year: 2019

Summary

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 trajectory of diet change in Northeast Asia, is distinct from that in the Near East, whose archaeological record has shaped our most enduring models for changes in human diet. Traditional optimality models, as applied to the archaeological record, predict that small game will only significantly contribute to diet when the availability of large game declines. This is typically taken to mean that an increased focus on small prey is related to resource depression – either through overhunting due to increased population density or due to environmental degradation. Neither case seems to hold true for the intensified use of small game and seeds across Northeast Asia, which rather correspond to a continued abundance of large game, relatively low population density, and climatic amelioration. Here, I reconsider the idea of optimality and investigate how changes in the distribution rather than quantity of resources may increase demand for small packages when there are still plenty of big packages around.

Cite this Record

Why Choose Small Packages When There Are So Many Big Packages Around?. Lisa Janz. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 451073)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: 70.4; min lat: 17.141 ; max long: 146.514; max lat: 53.956 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24284