The Ascendance of Hunting during the California Middle Archaic: An Evolutionary Perspective

2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Hildebrandt ◽  
Kelly R. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Darwinian Fitness ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Big Game Hunting

Against a backdrop of sustained resource intensification and population increases that began at the end of the middle Holocene in California and continued until at least 1000 B.P., there is a variety of archaeological evidence indicating that hunting of highly ranked large mammals actually increased during this time. This trend runs counter to general expectations set forth by optimal-foraging and diet-breadth models, and suggests that the role of big-game procurement by logistically organized male hunting parties had important social—indeed evolutionary—implications apart from its contributions to simple group provisioning. At the core of this argument is the notion that there can be Darwinian fitness benefits for males in pursuing certain types of highly prized resources, at the expense of regular and dependable provisioning of one's family. We contend that the evolutionary legacy surrounding big-game hunting is fundamental to the understanding not only of its paradoxical energetics, but also of the general elaboration of cultural systems, including the rise of certain spectacular technological and artistic traditions that characterize the California Middle Archaic period.

Palaeolithic Big Game Hunting at HP766 in Wadi Umm Rahau, Northern Sudan

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Achilles Gautier ◽  
Daniel Makowiecki ◽  
Henryk Paner ◽  
Wim Van Neer
Keyword(s):  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Big Game Hunting ◽  
Bone Remains

HP766, discovered by the Gdansk Archaeological Museum Expedition (GAME) in the region immediately upstream the Merowe Dam in North Sudan and now under water, is one of the few palaeolithic sites with animal bone remains in the country. The archaeological deposits, the large size of the site, the lithics and the radiocarbon dates indicate occupation of a silt terrace of the Nile in late MSA and perhaps LSA times. Large and very large mammals predominate markedly among the recovered bone remains and it would seem that the palaeolithic hunters focused on such game. They could corner these animals on the site which is partially surrounded by high bedrock outcrops. Moreover swampy conditions of the site after the retreat of the annual Nile flood may have rendered less mobile the prey animals. According to this scenario, HP766 would testify to the ecological skills and generational memory of late prehistoric man in Sudan.

scholarly journals The Role of the Immune System from an Evolutionary Perspective

2019 ◽  
pp. 198-209
Author(s):  
Carsten Schradin ◽  
Rainer H. Straub
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Medicine ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Life History Stage ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Lifetime Fitness ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Reproductive Life ◽  
Fitness Benefits

“Nothing in Biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution.” This famous citation of Theodosius Dobzhansky also underlies the integrative field of evolutionary medicine, which faces the challenge to combine (patho-)physiological mechanisms with evolutionary function. Here we introduce a concept from the study of animal behavior, which are the four questions of Tinbergen that consider: 1. the ontogeny of an individual describing its development, 2. its physiological machinery, which 3. has fitness consequences influencing 4. the evolutionary history (phylogeny) of future generations. It is shown how this concept can be applied to infectious disease and to chronic inflammatory systemic diseases. Evolutionary medicine takes lifetime reproductive success into account. The hypothesis to be tested is that mechanisms underlying a disease in old age might have higher fitness benefits in the pre-reproductive and/or reproductive life history stage, leading to an overall increased lifetime fitness.

Prestige and Prejudice: The Role of Long Distance Big Game Hunting as an Optimal Foraging Decision

2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deanna N. Grimstead
Keyword(s):  
Central Place ◽  
Central Place Foraging ◽  
Economic Returns ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Return Rates ◽  
Small Game ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Big Game Hunting ◽  
Foraging Decision

AbstractSignaling theory has much to offer anthropology and archaeology, which is in part why there is an increasing number of applications and healthy debates surrounding how best to apply it. One of those debates surrounds whether big game hunting is a costly signal or simply an aspect of efficient foraging. Grimstead (2010) contributed to this debate by showing that long-distance big-game hunting (greater than 100 km roundtrip) produces higher caloric return rates than does local small-game hunting, despite increased costs of travel and transport for the former. Whittaker and Carpenter (this issue) present a model that also suggests long-distance big-game hunting produces higher economic returns than local foraging but only up to about 50 km. This paper provides further details on the tenets of the Grimstead (2010) paper in response to criticisms by Whittaker and Carpenter (this issue), and then uses a previously published central place foraging model (Cannon 2003) to show that another model also shows long-distance big-game hunting over a distance greater than 100 kilometers roundtrip produces higher returns than local foraging.

Paleoindian Exploitation of Mammals in Eastern Washington State

2013 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Columbia Basin ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Mammalian Faunas ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Eastern Washington ◽  
Northwestern North America ◽  
Big Game Hunting

AbstractEleven mammalian archaeofaunas associated with the Western Stemmed Point Tradition (WSPT) in the Columbia Basin of intermontane northwestern North America and recovered from eastern Washington State suggest that local Paleoindians were variable in subsistence pursuits. The 11 faunas are strongly if imperfectly nested taxonomically, suggesting that they all derived from the same metacommunity. Taxonomic abundances evidenced by several faunas indicate a focus on large mammals (>25 kg body weight), others indicate a focus on small mammals (<5 kg body weight), and still others indicate generalized exploitation of a diverse array of mammalian body sizes. Early WSPT assemblages point to a broad diet, whereas late WSPT assemblages show a focus on artiodactyls. Middle and late Holocene mammalian faunas from the same and nearby areas indicate that Archaic-stage subsistence was more focused on large mammals than local early Paleoindian adaptations. The traditional model that specialized big-game-hunting Paleoindians were followed chronologically by more generalized or broad-spectrum adaptations of the Archaic is not supported in the Columbia Basin.

scholarly journals ‘Moving South’: Late Pleistocene Plant Exploitation and the Importance of Palm in the Colombian Amazon

Quaternary ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Mark Robinson ◽  
Gaspar Morcote-Rios ◽  
Francisco Javier Aceituno ◽  
Patrick Roberts ◽  
Juan Carlos Berrío ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Amazon Forest ◽  
Plant Exploitation ◽  
Colombian Amazon ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Big Game Hunting ◽  
Early Human

The role of plants in early human migrations across the globe has received little attention compared to big game hunting. Tropical forests in particular have been seen as a barrier for Late Pleistocene human dispersals due to perceived difficulties in obtaining sufficient subsistence resources. Archaeobotanical data from the Cerro Azul rock outcrop in the Colombian Amazon details Late Pleistocene plant exploitation providing insight into early human subsistence in the tropical forest. The dominance of palm taxa in the assemblage, dating from 12.5 ka BP, allows us to speculate on processes of ecological knowledge transfer and the identification of edible resources in a novel environment. Following the hypothesis of Martin Jones from his 2009 work, “Moving North: archaeobotanical evidence for plant diet in Middle and Upper Paleolithic Europe”, we contend that the instantly recognizable and economically useful palm family (Arecaceae) provided a “gateway” to the unknown resources of the Amazon forest.

Large-Game Hunting, Gender-Differentiated Work Organization, and the Role of Evolutionary Ecology in California and Great Basin Prehistory: A Reply to Broughton and Bayham

2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 790-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Hildebrandt ◽  
Kelly R. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Environmental Determinism ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Game Hunting

We are pleased that Broughton and Bayham acknowledge that there was an increase in large-game hunting during the Middle Archaic (ca. 4000-1000 B.P.) in California and the Great Basin that reached proportions greater than any other interval during the Holocene. They argue, however, that this was simply the result of changing climatic conditions, and that the larger social context of hunting plays little or no role in this development. The following discussion identifies several weaknesses in their environmental determinism, and shows how a more comprehensive analysis of genders differentiated fitness and work organization provides greater explanatory power than the narrow, fauna-based approach they advocate.

Commentaries and Rejoinder on

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Gong ◽  
Douglas L. Medin ◽  
Tal Eyal ◽  
Nira Liberman ◽  
Yaacov Trope ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Psychological Distance ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Moral Cognition ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Moral Condemnation ◽  
Construal Levels

In the hope to resolve the two sets of opposing results concerning the effects of psychological distance and construal levels on moral judgment, Žeželj and Jokić (2014) conducted a series of four direct replications, which yielded divergent patterns of results. In our commentary, we first revisit the consistent findings that lower-level construals induced by How/Why manipulation lead to harsher moral condemnation than higher-level construals. We then speculate on the puzzling patterns of results regarding the role of temporal distance in shaping moral judgment. And we conclude by discussing the complexity of morality and propose that it may be important to incorporate cultural systems into the study of moral cognition.

Track 2.a Introduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sucharita BENIWAL ◽  
Sahil MATHUR ◽  
Lesley-Ann NOEL ◽  
Cilla PEMBERTON ◽  
Suchitra BALASUBRAHMANYAN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Native Communities ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Local Practices

The aim of this track was to question the divide between the nature of knowledge understood as experiential in indigenous contexts and science as an objective transferable knowledge. However, these can co-exist and inform design practices within transforming social contexts. The track aimed to challenge the hegemony of dominant knowledge systems, and demonstrate co-existence. The track also hoped to make a case for other systems of knowledges and ways of knowing through examples from native communities. The track was particularly interested in, first, how innovators use indigenous and cultural systems and frameworks to manage or promote innovation and second, the role of local knowledge and culture in transforming innovation as well as the form of local practices inspired innovation. The contributions also aspired to challenge through examples, case studies, theoretical frameworks and methodologies the hegemony of dominant knowledge systems, the divides of ‘academic’ vs ‘non-academic’ and ‘traditional’ vs ‘non-traditional’.

The capacity of short term memory from an evolutionary perspective

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majid Manoochehri
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Cognitive System ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory

Memory span in humans has been intensely studied for more than a century. In spite of the critical role of memory span in our cognitive system, which intensifies the importance of fundamental determinants of its evolution, few studies have investigated it by taking an evolutionary approach. Overall, we know hardly anything about the evolution of memory components. In the present study, I briefly review the experimental studies of memory span in humans and non-human animals and shortly discuss some of the relevant evolutionary hypotheses.

Prey Body Size and Ranking in Zooarchaeology: Theory, Empirical Evidence, and Applications from the Northern Great Basin

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack M. Broughton ◽  
Michael D. Cannon ◽  
Frank E. Bayham ◽  
David A. Byers
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Return Rate ◽  
The Body ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Large Prey ◽  
Abundance Indices ◽  
Game Hunting

The use of body size as an index of prey rank in zooarchaeology has fostered a widely applied approach to understanding variability in foraging efficiency. This approach has, however, been critiqued—most recently by the suggestion that large prey have high probabilities of failed pursuits. Here, we clarify the logic and history of using body size as a measure of prey rank and summarize empirical data on the body size-return rate relationship. With few exceptions, these data document strong positive relationships between prey size and return rate. We then illustrate, with studies from the Great Basin, the utility of body size-based abundance indices (e.g., the Artiodactyl Index) when used as one component of multidimensional analyses of prehistoric diet breadth. We use foraging theory to derive predictions about Holocene variability in diet breadth and test those predictions using the Artiodactyl Index and over a dozen other archaeological indices. The results indicate close fits between the predictions and the data and thus support the use of body size-based abundance indices as measures of foraging efficiency. These conclusions have implications for reconstructions of Holocene trends in large game hunting in western North America and for zooarchaeological applications of foraging theory in general.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document