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.

Hunters' preferences and willingness to pay for driven hunts in southern Europe

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (8) ◽  
pp. 649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Soliño ◽  
Begoña A. Farizo ◽  
Pablo Campos
Keyword(s):  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Wild Boar ◽  
Wildlife Management ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Free Range ◽  
Small Game ◽  
Marginal Willingness To Pay ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Big Game Hunting ◽  
Wild Boar Hunting

Context Driven hunts exemplify the most representative form of big-game hunting in southern Europe. Aims We analysed hunter preferences for driven hunts and the marginal willingness to pay for their characteristics. Methods We conducted a discrete-choice experiment for driven hunts, taking into account the number of deer that could be hunted, the possibility of free-range wild-boar hunting, the presence of trophies, and other characteristics of driven hunts, such as congestion and travel time. Key results The highest influential driven-hunt characteristic on the utility of big-game hunters is the presence of trophy specimens, whereas for the small-game hunter it would be free-range wild-boar hunting. Conclusions Small-game hunters are reluctant to participate in the big-game market because of cultural factors and not because of budgetary restrictions. Implications Wildlife management and marketing of driven hunts can be improved taking into account the hunter preferences.

Lagoa Santa Revisited: An Overview of the Chronology, Subsistence, and Material Culture of Paleoindian Sites in Eastern Central Brazil

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astolfo G. M. Araujo ◽  
Walter A. Neves ◽  
Renato Kipnis
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
Central Brazil ◽  
Small Game ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Game Hunting

AbstractLagoa Santa, a karstic area in eastern Central Brazil, has been subject to research on human paleontology and archaeology for 175 years. Almost 300 Paleoindian human skeletons have been found since Danish naturalist Peter Lund’s pioneering work. Even so, some critical issues such as the role of rockshelters in settlement systems, and the possible paleoclimatic implications of the peopling of the region have yet to be addressed. We present some results obtained from recent excavations at four rockshelters and two open-air sites, new dates for human Paleoindian skeletons, and a model to explain the cultural patterns observed so far. It is also argued that the Paleoindian subsistence system at Lagoa Santa was similar to other locations in South America: generalized small-game hunting complemented by fruits, seed, and root gathering.

Ethnographic and Modeled Costs of Long-Distance, Big-Game Hunting

2010 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deanna N. Grimstead
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Energetic Efficiency ◽  
Costly Signaling ◽  
Round Trip ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Travel Costs ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Big Game Hunting ◽  
Prey Items ◽  
Game Animals

Evolutionary ecology provides a rich pool of models from which archaeologists derive expectations about prehistoric human behavior. Signaling Theory (ST) has been applied successfully in ethnographic and certain archaeological contexts. Other applications have fallen prey to post-hoc explanation of aberrant archaeological patterns. This paper evaluates the claim that big-game hunting was a costly foraging behavior when traveling great distances, and therefore was undertaken as a form of costly signaling. The central place foraging model is used in conjunction with caloric expenditure formulae, derived from human energetics and locomotion research, to evaluate the cost of travel and transport versus the returns for large and small prey items. It is shown that big game continues to yield significant energetic returns even in situations where travel costs are comparatively high (i.e., 100-200 km round-trip). Small game hunting becomes energetically costly when a forager makes a procurement round-trip of more than ca.10 km. Large game animals are the highest return prey items even when procurement distances are comparatively great because humans are physiologically well-adapted for carrying objects over long distances. While the capture of big game animals may have bestowed prestige upon prehistoric hunters or served as some other signal of individual quality, these prey animals were not overly costly in terms of energetic efficiency—even under increased travel costs. These results emphasize the difficulty of separating social prestige from optimal foraging as the basis for big-game hunting in archaeological contexts.

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.

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.

Certain Crescentic Stone Objects as a Time Marker in the Western United States

1966 ◽  
Vol 31 (5Part1) ◽  
pp. 662-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Lewis Tadlock
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Time Marker ◽  
Small Game ◽  
Cultural Complex ◽  
Surface Sites ◽  
California Channel Islands ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
Bodies Of Water ◽  
Big Game Hunting

AbstractA class of pressure-flaked stone objects of crescentic shape made to an easily recognizable pattern is usually associated with surface sites adjacent to continuous or discontinuous bodies of water or playas. The crescent has a distribution from the Southern California Channel Islands to western Utah and the Columbia Basin in Washington. Even though its function is not yet known, it nevertheless is — because of a unique and consistent association of attributes — a useful material culture trait that may serve as a marker for a particular cultural complex. The trait is not known to be associated with the small-game hunting and food-gathering based cultures of the Archaic stage. Archaeological evidence indicates that the crescent is contemporaneous with big-game hunting cultures of the techno-economic level associated with the upper Lithic stage.

scholarly journals Central Place Foraging Characteristics of Beavers (Castor Canadensis) and Habitat Modeling in Grand Teton National Park

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
William Gribb ◽  
Henry Harlow
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Habitat Modeling ◽  
Central Place Foraging ◽  
Natural Landscape ◽  
Mountain Climbing ◽  
Park Service

A significant role of the National Park Service in the United States is the preservation of pristine landscapes. The natural landscape offers the visitor the opportunity to enjoy the wonders of nature and its processes to create beautiful vistas, soaring mountains, and the interplay of vegetation communities. The visitor to the park can be a passive recreationist and observe the landscape or be an active recreationist and experience the landscape through hiking, biking, mountain climbing and a range of other activities. The key linkage between the active and passive recreationist is the landscape that they are experiencing, in one perspective or the other. Any disruption of that natural landscape diminishes the experience. Unfortunately, the perception of the disruption varies with each individual. The trail to get to a scenic vista can be overlooked by some observers, while others believe it is an example of the devastation of human impact.

Attachment Styles, Physical Proximity, and Relational Satisfaction

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-112
Author(s):  
Anita Shrivastava ◽  
Andrea Burianova
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Distinct Type ◽  
Relational Satisfaction ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Avoidant Attachment ◽  
Geographic Separation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Attachment Dimensions

This study aimed to explore the relationships between attachment styles, proximity, and relational satisfaction. This was achieved by assessing a distinct type of long distance romantic relationship of flying crews, compared with proximal (non-flying crew) romantic relationships. The responses of 139 expatriate professionals revealed significant associations between proximity and anxious and avoidant attachment dimensions. The role of the avoidant dimension in comparison with that of the anxious dimension was found to be a significant predictor of relational satisfaction. This study contributes significantly toward addressing the role of proximity and attachment in relational satisfaction in a new context of geographic separation.

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.

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