Indigenous Cradle Technology and Maternal Foraging Efficiency

Summary

This is an abstract from the "*Behavioral Ecology in the Mountain West" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Indigenous North Americans, including peoples of the Mountain West, invented and use(d) cradles to transport infants during maternal activities. Energy expenditures and return rates of mothers foraging with infants using carrying technology is understudied, but an important consideration among groups relying heavily on caloric contributions from women. We replicate foraging conditions representative of precolonial western North America and compare the energetic costs of foraging in females (n=6, ages: 21-37 years) under three infant-carrying conditions. We measured activity through accelerometry and metabolic rate (Kcal/h) through indirect calorimetry of foraging “unloaded,” and carrying a 10lbs load in a cradle and in a sling. Average energy expenditure foraging unloaded was 194kcal in a 1-hour bout, 197kcal with cradle technology, and 186 with sling technology. Average caloric value of foraged acorns was highest for unloaded bouts (11,066kcal), followed by cradle-carrying bouts (10,616kcal) and sling-carrying bouts (9,446kcal). While cradle-carrying resulted in greater caloric expenditures compared to foraging unloaded or with a sling, foragers using cradles experienced higher return rates and greater foraging efficiency than foragers carrying infants in a sling. Cradles provide greater freedom of movement than sling-carrying and is/was an important technology in economies relying primarily on women’s labor to gather and process resources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• *Behavioral Ecology in the Mountain West   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51925