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Data availability statement: All data and code to reproduce the present study are available at: https://github.com/tbendixen/cross-cultural-free-list-project. The main project repository including raw data, full protocols, and related materials is available at: https://github.com/bgpurzycki/Evolution-of-Religion-and-Morality . The file available on this institutional repository is a preprint available on PsyArXiv at https://psyarxiv.com/tjn3e/. It has not been certified by peer review. We recommend you consult the version of record published by Routledge at https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2023.2178487. How do beliefs about gods vary across populations, and what accounts for this variation? We argue that appeals to gods generally reflect prominent features of local social ecologies. We first draw from a synthesis of theoretical, experimental, and ethnographic evidence to delineate a set of predictive criteria for the kinds of contexts with which religious beliefs and behaviors will be associated. To evaluate these criteria, we examine the content of freely-listed data about gods’ concerns collected from individuals across eight diverse field sites and contextualize these beliefs in their respective cultural milieus. In our analysis, we find that local deities’ concerns point to costly threats to local coordination and cooperation. We conclude with a discussion of how alternative approaches to religious beliefs and appeals fare in light of our results and close by considering some key implications for the cognitive and evolutionary sciences of religion. Cultural Evolution of Religion Research Consortium, funded by a SSHRC partnership grant and the John Templeton Foundation (awarded to A.N. and J.H.); B.G.P. acknowledges support from the Max Planck Society; T.B. and B.G.P. acknowledge generous support from the Aarhus University Research Foundation.

We apply the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) and Ideal Despotic Distribution (IDD) models to two Bronze Age (ca. 3100-1050 BCE) mainland Greek regions with different local ecologies and culture histories: Messenia and the Argolid. Using existing settlement data, we show that regions within the same cultural system contemporaneously fit different settlement patterns, reflecting distinct environmental adaptations. Such differences help to understand regional variations in resource access and competition. Although the highest-ranked habitats were settled first in each region, large-scale expansion to lower-ranked habitats occurred more quickly in the Argolid, likely because highly productive agricultural land was limited, resulting in a competitive focus on the Argive Plain. This contrasts with Messenia, where access to agricultural resources is better distributed. Our results demonstrate that applying ideal distribution models at a regional scale provides valuable information about the development of social complexity and the conditions in which it occurs.

International audience

This is a multi-component study of matrilateral cross-cousin (impal) marriage amongst the Karo people of North Sumatra, Indonesia, that is based on 5 months of fieldwork in 2014 funded by the Fulbright Scholars Program and the American Institute for Indonesian Studies.

Access to social capital and valued resources modulates household decision-making as people seek to occupy the best-quality patches of land available. Prior occupancy, inheritance, and land tenure norms can constrain opportunities resulting in inequality between households. We examined processes of settlement development and structural inequality at two Classic Period (250–900 CE) Maya centers, Ix Kuku’il and Uxbenka, in Southern Belize. From the lens of human behavioral ecology (HBE), we evaluate the predictions of two population density models, the ideal free distribution (IFD) and the ideal despotic distribution (IDD), on household decision-making. To do so, we correlate the initial foundation date of households with nine measurable suitability variables as proxies for social and environmental resources. We conclude that at Uxbenka and Ix Kuku’il, social resources, such as the ability to mobilize labor, cooperation, and access to a transportation corridor, likely influenced where people chose to live. Environmental resources, including good farmland and access to perennial water sources, were widely distributed across the landscape and accessible to everyone. This study highlights the importance of social relationships on household decision-making, which is often difficult to detect in the archaeological record. The development and manifestation of institutionalized inequality are processes relevant to all societies past and present.

In evolutionary psychology, it is customary to measure life-history via psychometric inventories such as the Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB). The validity of this approach has been questioned: it is argued that these measures are not congruent with biological life history events, such as the number of children, age at first birth, or pubertal timing. However, empirical data to test this critique are lacking. We therefore administered the ALHB to a convenience sample of young adults in Serbia (N = 447). We also collected information on psychosocial-biodemographic life history parameters closely related to biological life history traits: pubertal timing, onset of sexual behavior, short- and long-term mating, number of children, timing of reproduction, parenthood values, and environmental harshness. We found that correlations between these two sets of measures were rare, unsystematic, and mostly low in magnitude. Stable patterns of relations emerged only between the indicators of environmental conditions from both sets of measures. Furthermore, some ALHB indicators were found to be positively related with early fertility, which is incongruent with the conceptual foundation of ALHB. Finally, network analysis and factor analysis within each set of measures revealed different structures and that the hypothesis of unidimensionality, on which the ALHB was founded, cannot be applied to psychosocial-biodemographic life history indicators. Our results support the critique of ALHB as a set of measures lacking validity to capture biodemographic life-history parameters. ALHB measures are indeed relevant for understanding life-history variation, but they cannot be used as a substitute for specific life history characteristics. Our findings are a warning to researchers to use direct measures of biological events in order to measure life-history dynamics.

This paper offers a new numerical approach to model the effects of archaeological site placement and population density on environmental suitability using two ecological models, the Ideal Free Dist...

The ethnographic literature of California has long attributed some measure of reduced mobility to nearly all of its Native societies, but methods for determining this measure for any given group ha...

Previous research suggested that psychopathy is related to diminished physical and mental health. However, this link could be specific to psychopathic lifestyle and antisocial behavior, while manipulative characteristics and emotional superficiality could be unrelated or even positively related to physical and mental health. Furthermore, psychopathic features could mediate the link between detrimental family characteristics and health problems. We tested these hypotheses in a sample of male convicts (N = 224). Psychopathy was explored via a rating method (PCL–R). Dysfunctional family characteristics were extracted from participants’ prison files. Finally, self-reported biographical data was used to estimate problems in physical and mental health. Behavioral psychopathy tendencies and especially impulsive and erratic behavior turned out to be positively related both to physical and mental health problems. On the other hand, Interpersonal and Affective psychopathy features were mostly unrelated or negatively related to health problems. Finally, Antisocial and especially Lifestyle characteristics turned out to be significant mediators of the link between dysfunctional family characteristics and health problems. Research results showed that narrow psychopathy facets are differentially related to health status. Psychopathic lifestyle and criminal behavior are positively related with problems in physical and mental health, while manipulative characteristics and affective shallowness are associated with better health. The results are in accordance with the concept of successful psychopathy and evolutionary accounts on psychopathy. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 47011: Crime in Serbia: Phenomenology, Risks and Possibilities of Social Intervention]

В статье рассматриваются некоторые аспекты изучения классического памятника янковской культуры железного века Песчаный-1 в течение последних 100 лет. Характеризуются мировоззренческие позиции авторов раскопок древнего поселения и этапы развития методики полевых исследований раковинных куч — одного из самых сложных археологических объектов. Анализируется рост информативного потенциала тех или иных методов изучения кухонных остатков с раковинами моллюсков. Показано, как развивалось понимание стратиграфии, структуры и процессов формирования отложений с раковинами моллюсков, позволившее реконструировать процессы адаптации системы жизнеобеспечения древнего населения к меняющейся окружающей среде., The article discusses some aspects of the study of the classic site of the Yankovsky culture of the Iron Age Peschany-1 during the last 100 years. The author analyzes the methodological positions of the authors of the excavations of the ancient site and the stages of development of the methodology of field research of shell middens — one of the most complex archaeological objects. The growth of the informative potential of the use of various methods of studying kitchen residues with mollusks shells is analyzed. The development of understanding of stratigraphy, structure and processes of formation of deposits with mollusk shells is considered, which allowed reconstructing the processes of adaptation of the subsistence system of the ancient population to the changing environment.

This study employs an ideal free distribution (IFD) model to conduct a fine-grained analysis of environmental factors affecting the pre-Columbian colonisation sequence and settlement patterning in ...

This chapter explores the relationship between parenting and technology from an evolutionary perspective. The exploration is organized around the “three styles” framework for understanding and differentiating between the three major evolutionary approaches to the study of human behavior: evolutionary psychology, human behavioral ecology, and dual inheritance theory. For each of these evolutionary approaches, the chapter provides two examples of the relationship between parenting and technology, one related to childbearing and the other related to childrearing. Is the evolutionary approach a useful one to understand this relationship? First, although each has as its focus the application of evolutionary theory to the study of human behavior, each of the three styles brings a different set of assumptions and priorities. Second, an evolutionary perspective points to specific, and theoretically justified, behavioral concomitants of technological change.

Researchers across the social sciences have long been interested in families. How people make decisions such as who to marry, when to have a baby, how big or small a family to have, or whether to stay with a partner or stray are questions that continue to interest economists, sociologists, demographers, and anthropologists. Human families vary across the globe; different cultures have different marriage practices, different ideas about who raises children, and even different notions of what a family is. Human behavioral ecology is a branch of anthropology that is particularly interested in cultural variation of family systems and how these differences impact upon the people that inhabit them; the children, parents, grandparents. It draws on evolutionary theory to direct research and generate testable hypotheses to uncover how different ecologies, including social contexts, can explain diversity in families. In this Special Issue on the behavioral ecology of the family, we have collated a selection of papers that showcase just how useful this framework is for understanding cultural variation in families, which we hope will convince other social scientists interested in family research to draw upon evolutionary and ecological insight in their own work.

Children rely on support from parental helpers (alloparents), perhaps especially in high-needs contexts. Considerable evidence indicates that closer relatives and maternal relatives are the most likely to provide this care, as inclusive fitness theory suggests, but whether this is equally true across different family types and in culturally patrilocal societies requires investigation. This structured interview study (N = 208 respondents with 323 dependent children) focuses on who helps raise children in rural Bangladesh after the father’s or mother’s death, or divorce, in comparison to families with both parents present or the father temporarily a migrant laborer. Family types differed in where and with whom children resided, who served as their primary and secondary caregivers, and who provided material support, but mother’s kin played a major role, and were the primary providers of material resources from outside the child’s household in all family types. Despite the patrilineal ideology, only one-quarter of children of divorce lived with the father or his family, and even after the death of the mother, only 59% remained with father or other paternal kin. Household income varied by family type and was a strong predictor of child height and weight. The children of deceased mothers moved between successive caregivers especially frequently, and were uniquely likely to have no schooling. The typology of Bangladeshi society as patrilocal obscures the extent to which matrilateral family support children’s well-being.

This paper examines the temporal distribution of 163 distinct species recovered from 21 well-dated Holocene age archaeological sites in the Ohio River valley to determine patterns of faunal resource procurement and their response to periods of climate change. Climate change proxies include bison, long-billed curlew, pine marten, porcupine, prairie vole, and swamp rabbit. While the rice rat may be a proxy of climate change, its initial appearance in the Archaic cultural period co-occurs with storable starchy and oily seed crops such as erect knotweed, little barley, marsh elder, maygrass, and sunflower. Subsistence proxies that transcend climate change include variety of aquatic (bass/sunfish, buffalo, channel catfish, freshwater drum, gar, mussels, snails, snapping and spiny softshell turtles, and river redhorse sucker), avian (blue-wing teal, Canada goose, and turkey), and terrestrial species (dog, eastern cotton-tail, elk, gray and fox squirrels, opossum, raccoon, timber rattlesnake, and woodchuck). Caldwell’s Primary Forest Efficiency remains a valid theoretical model of Holocene subsistence strategy in the Ohio River valley.

Cannibalism is an old and widespread human practice; however, the causes and meaning of consuming other humans are still hotly debated. Several explanations are possible for cannibalistic behavior, ranging from social and cultural motivations to purely nutritional causes. In this study, we analyze the oldest known case of cannibalism to date in the framework of the Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT). The fossil assemblage from the TD6.2 unit of the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain), dated to c. 0.9 Ma, includes the remains of several hominins (Homo antecessor) with unquestionable signs of cannibalism and a large collection of fossils of other mammals, also with evidence of human consumption. The Optimal Foraging Theory predicts that foragers confronted with a number of options aim to maximize their return rate, obtaining the maximum benefit with the minimum cost. We estimated the nutrient caloric return and the cost of acquisition of humans and other large mammals in TD6.2, and evaluated the rank of hominins among all the food resources harvested by H. antecessor using a Prey Choice Model (PreyCM). We also show that the abundance of the different prey types represented in the TD6.2 assemblage is proportional to the abundance of those resources in the environment, a prediction of the OFT. Although TD6.2 assemblage fits the predictions of the PreyCM, humans are overrepresented with respect to their estimated abundance in the environment. This overrepresentation of hominins was likely due to a higher encounter rate, as may be expected if the cannibalized individuals belonged to the same group as the foragers, although other explanations are possible. The results presented here show that hominins were a high-ranked prey type and, thus, their inclusion in the diet of H. antecessor is predicted by the OFT.

Existing approaches within leadership studies often share a bias towards industrialized societies and lack broader cross-cultural and ethological reference. Meanwhile, cross-cultural and evolutionary approaches within anthropology are actively working to unify research on leadership and followership across the biological and social sciences. This review provides a novel and thorough view of political leadership as investigated by evolutionary anthropologists and highlights the benefits of incorporating findings from the evolutionary social sciences into leadership studies generally. We introduce the anthropological approach to leadership; describe evolutionary anthropology, its subdisciplines (including primatology, paleoanthropology, paleogenetics, human behavioral ecology, and gene-culture coevolution), and its complementary disciplines (particularly evolutionary psychology); review leadership and hierarchy in nonhumans, including our extinct hominid ancestors; review female leadership and sex-differences; and, primarily, discuss the relationships between evolution, ecology, and culture as they relate to the observed patterns of political leadership and followership across human societies. Through evolutionary anthropology's diverse toolkit, a deeper insight into the evolution and cross-cultural patterning of leadership is realized.

From a gene-culture evolutionary perspective, the recent rise in obesity rates around the Developed world is unprecedented; perhaps the most rapid population-scale shift in human phenotype ever to occur. Focusing on the recent rise of obesity and diabetes in the United States, we consider the predictions of human behavioral ecology (HBE) versus the predictions of social learning (SL) of obesity through cultural traditions and/or peer–to–peer influence. To isolate differences that might discriminate these different models, we first explore temporal and geographic trends in the inverse correlation between household income and obesity and diabetes rates in the U.S. Whereas by 2015 these inverse correlations were strong, these correlations were non-existent as recently as 1990. The inverse correlations have evolved steadily over recent decades, and we present equations for their time evolution since 1990. We then explore evidence for a “social multiplier” effect at county scale over a ten-year period, as well as a social diffusion pattern at state scale over a 26–year period. We conclude that these patterns support HBE and SL as factors driving obesity, with HBE explaining ultimate causation. As a specific “ecological” driver for this human behavior, we speculate that refined sugar in processed foods may be a prime driver of increasing obesity and diabetes.

We examine the relationship between niche construction theory (NCT) and human behavioral ecology (HBE), two branches of evolutionary science that are important sources of theory in archeology. We distinguish between formal models of niche construction as an evolutionary process, and uses of niche construction to refer to a kind of human behavior. Formal models from NCT examine how environmental modification can change the selection pressures that organisms face. In contrast, formal models from HBE predict behavior assuming people behave adaptively in their local setting, and can be used to predict when and why people engage in niche construction. We emphasize that HBE as a field is much broader than foraging theory and can incorporate social and cultural influences on decision-making. We demonstrate how these approaches can be formally incorporated in a multi-inheritance framework for evolutionary research, and argue that archeologists can best contribute to evolutionary theory by building and testing models that flexibly incorporate HBE and NCT elements.

The study of cultural evolution now includes multiple theoretical frameworks. Despite common influence from Darwinian evolutionary theory, there is considerable diversity. Thus, we recognize those most influenced by the tenets of the Modern Synthesis (evolutionary archaeology, cultural transmission theory, and human behavioral ecology) and those most aligned more closely with concepts emerging in the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (cultural macroevolution and evolutionary cognitive archaeology). There has been substantial debate between adherents of these schools of thought as to their appropriateness and priority for addressing the fundamentals of cultural evolution. I argue that theoretical diversity is necessary to address research questions arising from a complex archaeological record. Concepts associated with the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis may offer unique insights into the cultural evolutionary process.

One of the greatest difficulties with evolutionary approaches in the study of stone tools (lithics) has been finding a mechanism for tying culture and biology in a way that preserves human agency and operates at scales that are visible in the archaeological record. The concept of niche construction, whereby organisms actively construct their environments and change the conditions for selection, could provide a solution to this problem. In this review, we evaluate the utility of niche construction theory (NCT) for stone tool archaeology. We apply NCT to lithics both as part of the ?extended phenotype? and as residuals or precipitates of other niche-constructing activities, suggesting ways in which archaeologists can employ niche construction feedbacks to generate testable hypotheses about stone tool use. Finally, we conclude that, as far as its applicability to lithic archaeology, NCT compares favorably to other prominent evolutionary approaches, such as human behavioral ecology and dual-inheritance theory.

В статье рассматривается возникновение и эволюция палеоэкологического направления в Институте истории, археологии и этнографии (ИИАЭ) ДВО РАН начиная с конца 70-х гг. XX в. и по настоящее время. Анализируются этологические и организационные условия возникновения новой парадигмы. Выделяются этапы развития и продвижения палеоэкологических исследований, даётся характеристика и подводятся итоги каждого из них. Анализируются текущие трудности реализации и результаты исследований. Констатируется формирование двух направлений в археологии ИИАЭ ДВО РАН, которые слабо связаны друг с другом., The article deals with the emergence and evolution of the paleoecological direction in the Institute of history, archaeology and ethnology of the people of the Far East (IНAE) of the FEB RAS since the late 70s of the XX century and to the present day. The ecological and organizational conditions of the emergence of a new paradigm are analyzed. The stages of development and promotion of paleoecological research are highlighted, and the characteristics and totals of each of them are given. The current implementation difficulties and research results are analyzed. The author states the formation of two directions in the archeology of the IНAE FEB RAS which are loosely connected with each other.

En 1962 el arqueólogo Lewis R. Binford publicó un artículo titulado Arqueología como Antropología en la revista American Antiquity. Se trata de un trabajo central en lo que vino a denominarse Nueva Arqueología o Arqueología Procesual. Entre otras tantas cuestiones, Binford reclamaba que el objetivo de la disciplina arqueológica es explicitar y explicar la totalidad de las diferencias y semejanzas físicas y socioculturales de la existencia humana. La Arqueología Darwiniana comparte esta asunción, pero va más allá. Comprende la Arqueología no sólo como Antropología -e Historia- sino también como Biología. Sus partidarios defienden que tanto la realidad genética y anatómica como la sociocultural de nuestra especie no se entienden verdaderamente si no es bajo la ley de la evolución, cuyo mecanismo se apoya en los pilares de la transmisión con variación y la retención selectiva diferencial de las unidades evolutivas a varios niveles: genes, memes, individuos, poblaciones, nichos ecológicos, etc. En esta obra se introduce al lector en las características elementales de este enfoque interpretativo en Arqueología. Se exploran con cierta profundidad sus coordenadas teóricas básicas y se exponen diferentes ejemplos que ayudan a asimilar tales principios. Como el mismo autor reconoce, quizás uno de los grandes aportes de este libro a la Arqueología Darwiniana, y que lo diferencia de los trabajos teóricos de otros colegas, es la consideración de insertar también la realidad biológica dentro de un ámbito que la supera y que la integra: el de los sistemas termodinámicos en no equilibrio.

Over the past decade, niche construction theory (NCT) has been one of the fastest-growing theories or scholarly approaches in the social sciences, especially within archaeology. It was proposed in the biological sciences 25 years ago and is often referred to as a neglected evolutionary mechanism. Given its rapid acceptance by the archaeological community, it is important that scholars consider how it is being applied and look for discrepancies between applications of the concept. Many critical discussions of NCT have already been published, but most of them are in biology journals and may be overlooked by scholars in the social sciences. In this manuscript, my goal is to synthesis the criticisms of NCT, better allowing archaeologists to independently evaluate its usefulness. I focus on the claims of novelty and differences between NCT and other approaches to conceptualizing anthropogenic ecosystem impacts and culture-evolution feedbacks. I argue that the diverse concepts currently included in the wide-reaching purview of NCT are not new, but the terminology is and may be useful to some scholars. If proponents of the concept are able to unify their ideas, it may serve a descriptive function, but given that lack of a testable explanatory mechanism, it does not have a clear heuristic function. The Origins of NCT - An Earlier Legacy of Thought - Gene–Culture Coevolution - A Lineage of Thought NCT and Ecosystem Engineering An Expanding Concept Dropping the Evolutionary Feedback Applications in the Social Sciences - Origins-of-Agriculture Debates The Three Primary Examples - Lactase Persistence - Sickle Cell Anemia - Hypoxia Adaptations - The Three Key Examples - Are Humans Niche Constructors? Conclusions

The earliest evidence for agriculture in Taiwan dates to about 6000 years BP and indicates that farmer-gardeners from Southeast China migrated across the Taiwan Strait. However, little is known about the adaptive interactions between Taiwanese foragers and Neolithic Chinese farmers during the transition. This paper considers theoretical expectations from human behavioral ecology based models and macroecological patterning from Binford’s hunter-gatherer database to scope the range of responses of native populations to invasive dispersal. Niche variation theory and invasion theory predict that the foraging niche breadths will narrow for native populations and morphologically similar dispersing populations. The encounter contingent prey choice model indicates that groups under resource depression from depleted high-ranked resources will increasingly take low-ranked resources upon encounter. The ideal free distribution with Allee effects categorizes settlement into highly ranked habitats selected on the basis of encounter rates with preferred prey, with niche construction potentially contributing to an upswing in some highly ranked prey species. In coastal plain habitats preferred by farming immigrants, interactions and competition either reduced encounter rates with high ranked prey or were offset by benefits to habitat from the creation of a mosaic of succession ecozones by cultivation. Aquatic-focused foragers were eventually constrained to broaden subsistence by increasing the harvest of low ranked resources, then mobility-compatible Neolithic cultigens were added as a niche-broadening tactic. In locations less suitable for farming, fishing and hunting continued as primary foraging tactics for centuries after Neolithic arrivals. The paper concludes with a set of evidence-based archaeological expectations derived from these models.

A set of investigations has attempted to identify patterns in human resource use behavior to drive conservation strategies. However, it is still necessary to advance the understanding of the factors that influence human decision making in the use of resources, considering the perceived cost-benefit relationships. In this research, we assessed whether cost-benefit rationale may explain why certain resources are more used than others, as well as the factors that can predict resource consumption by certain families. We adopted the use of biofuels as research model in a rural settlement in northeastern Brazil. Our main findings indicate that the species most frequently used by people are those that favor the cost-benefit relationship. Resource availability was the main variable that directed the frequency of use of the species, and only the number of people in the residences explained the consumption of firewood by the families. These findings can provide important insights for the elaboration of biocultural conservation strategies because they present the mechanisms that can direct the behavior in the use of certain resources and the greater consumption of firewood by certain families.

The study presented here is based on the zooarchaeological remains recovered from the recent excavation campaigns and focuses on the anthropological perspective of faunal analysis.

Applications of lagomorph indices to faunal assemblages in the American Southwest have produced a complex series of hypotheses and explanations for the changing ratio between Sylvilagus (cottontail rabbits) and Lepus (jackrabbits) in the archaeological record. Archaeologists attribute shifts in the lagomorph index (LI) to variation in the natural environment, modification of the landscape by Native Americans, changes in human hunting behaviors, and depression of Lepus populations through differential hunting. Couched within the logic of human behavioral ecology (HBE), LI attempts to connect species representation to environmental change and human decision-making. The varied ecosystems, cultures, and environments of the American Southwest complicate this connection and make some interpretations better suited to different subregions. In this paper, we report results from the analysis of faunal remains from Room 733 at Homol’ovi I, an ancestral Hopi site near Winslow, Arizona. Room 733 dates to the Late Homol’ovi Phase (LHP) 1385–1400 but also includes dates from the Early Homol’ovi Phase (EHP) 1330–1365. We calculate the LI for both phases to evaluate different explanations for shifts in the LI relative to regional moisture patterns. We find that while most explanations for changing LI are interconnected, changing environmental moisture, human hunting behaviors, and depression of Lepus populations do not fully explain the shifting LI. We suggest that human niche construction provides the most satisfactory explanation for changing lagomorph representation in the assemblage from Homol’ovi Room 733.

Despite decades of archaeological research, roughly 75% of Madagascar's land area remains archaeologically unexplored and the oldest sites on the island are difficult to locate, as they contain the ephemeral remains of mobile hunter/forager campsites. The known archaeological record is therefore biased toward later sites, especially sites dating to the second millennium AD, following the expansion of Indian Ocean trading networks. Systematic archaeological investigations are required to address these biases in the known archaeological record and clarify the island's early human history, but funding limitations, logistical and time constraints in surveying large areas and a relatively small number of active field archaeologists present substantial barriers to expansive areal survey coverage. Using theoretical models derived from human behavioral ecology (i.e., ideal free distribution, optimal foraging theory) in conjunction with freely available remote sensing data, we illustrate how archaeological survey of Madagascar's landscapes can be rapidly expanded, more effectively target early archaeological deposits, and address questions about the island's settlement. This study illustrates the potential for theoretically-driven satellite-based remote sensing analysis to improve our understanding of the archaeological record of the world's fourth largest island.

This is a follow-up to my previous analysis of matrilateral cross-cousin (impal) marriage among the Karo of North Sumatra, Indonesia, suggesting that sexual conflict may have been a factor in driving down the rate of this type of marriage (Kushnick et al 2016). The data come from ethnographic fieldwork conducted by Dr Geoff Kushnick (The Australian National University) in 2014 with funding from the Fulbright Scholars Program (USA).

В статье рассматривается современная ситуация, сложившаяся в отече­ ственной археологии в связи с продвижением междисциплинарных иссле­ дований в экологической парадигме, подходов и методов реконструкций систем жизнеобеспечения и палеодиет древнего населения. Исследуют­ ся два основных подхода к реконструкции палеодиет. Первый предполага­ ет прямые эмпирические подсчёты по экофактам, отражающим различные компоненты палеодиеты. Этот подход пригоден для ограниченного числа типов отложений с хорошей сохранностью, в основном — раковинных куч. Констатируется противоречие в современных реализациях эмпирических подсчётов для реконструкции систем жизнеобеспечения и моделей палео­ диет, когда углеводная компонента «ускользает» от внимания исследовате­ лей. В качестве одного из продуктивных вариантов преодоления противо­ речия предлагается метод изучения остатков древнего крахмала на орудиях и керамике с его информативными возможностями и перспективами при­ менения. Второй подход основан на комплексе методов изучения химичес­ ких маркеров использования тех или иных источников пищи. Эти маркеры могут быть обнаружены в костях, зубах, других тканях тела и на керами­ ке. Авторы рассматривают условия, информационные возможности и огра­ ничения применения каждого из методов и их комплекса для получения наиболее полного представления о системе жизнеобеспечения и палеодие­ те. Также проводится критический анализ результатов накопленного опы­ та применения различных подходов и методов анализа палеодиеты в регио­ нальной археологии. Предлагаются способы интеграции подходов и методов для более полной реконструкции систем жизнеобеспечения и палеодиет., The paper describes the current situation in Russian archaeology in connection with the promotion of interdisciplinary research in the ecological paradigm, approaches and methods for reconstructing the life-support systems and paleodiet of the ancient population. Two main approaches to paleodiet reconstruction are examined. The first one involves direct empirical calculations on ecofacts that reflect the various components of the paleodiet. It is suitable for limited types of deposits with good preservation, mainly shell mounds. It is stated that there are contradictions in modern implementations of empirical calculations for the reconstruction of life-support systems and paleodiet models when the carbohydrate component “escapes” from the attention of researchers. One of the proposed productive technics for overcoming the contradiction is a research method of ancient starch on tools and ceramics. This method has informative capabilities and prospects for its application. The second approach is based on methods for studying chemical markers of using certain food sources. These markers can be found in bones, teeth, other body tissues and ceramics. The authors analyze in detail the conditions, information capabilities and limitations of the use of each of the methods and their combination for the most complete reconstruction of the life-support system and the paleodiet. A critical review of the results from various approaches and methods of the paleodiet analysis in regional archeology is also carried out. The integrated approaches and methods for a more complete reconstruction of the life-support systems and paleodiet are proposed.

Quite recently it was said that the humanities and social sciences had taken a “linguistic turn.” Today a “material turn” has taken place, perhaps in reaction to the ruling post-structuralism of the 1980s and 1990s, or as an extension of post-modern approaches. The dangers posed by human-induced climate change and the success of cognitive-scientific subdisciplines that address consciousness, social interaction, and communication run parallel to “new materialists” across numerous disciplines in the humanities and social sciences (archeologists, anthropologists, and historians of art, architecture, science, and religion) intent on turning an earlier anthropocentrism on its head. These new materialists experiment with sometimes extreme views of material agency, even while they examine symbolic systems in past and present, thus approaching “culture” as “human behavioral ecology” or pursuing “cognitive archeology” – with methods that presuppose the physical co-dependence of human reflection, things, and environments. But can or should the symbolic content of a culture be treated as a material thing?

Human behavior and physiology evolved under conditions vastly different from those which most humans inhabit today. This paper summarizes long-term dietary studies conducted on contemporary hunter-gatherer populations (sometimes referred to as foragers). Selected studies for the most part that use evolutionary theoretical perspectives and data collection methods derived from the academic field of human behavioral ecology, which derives relatively recently from the fields of evolutionary biology, ethology, population biology and ecological anthropology. I demonstrate how this body of research illuminates ancestral patterns of food production, consumption and sharing, infant feeding, and juvenile subsistence contributions in hunter-gatherer economies. Insights from hunter-gatherer studies are then briefly discussed within the context of better-studied human populations that are Westernized, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD).

The Altiplano constitutes the most extensive, high-elevation terrain in South America. Most archaeological research on the earliest human occupation of this region in the Bolivian Andes derives from sites such as Viscachani where the emphasis has been on typological comparisons of projectile points, rather than on complete and radiometrically dated assemblages. In this paper, we present survey and excavation data from the Iroco region in the Central Altiplano of Bolivia to address questions related to the adaptive strategies engaged by Archaic Period highland foragers. Specifically, we focus on the nature of mobility, subsistence, and technological strategies, stemmed from principles in human behavioral ecology. Based on data from radiocarbon dates, lithic, and faunal analyses, we suggest that, similar to other mobile foraging societies in arid environments, highland foragers in Iroco engaged in seasonal residential mobility, consumed a broad range of faunal resources, and developed a curated technological toolkit within the context of ameliorated environmental conditions that prevailed during the early Holocene (11,500–8000 cal BP).

International audience; We assume that early Neolithic cultivators had an optimizing behavior aiming yield maximization and labor efficiency. Then we conduct a hypothetical optimization exercise by examining which consequences such behavior would have if applied to the cultivation of Near-Eastern wild cereals, especially on their rate of domestication measured by the frequency of non-shattering seeds. Two stages of the cultivation process are analyzed, the harvest and the processing. The harvest stage requires two strategies, one about the state of ripeness at the harvest and the other about the harvesting method. We demonstrate that under an optimizing behavior most mature seeds are harvested-by combining two technologies, ground collection and sickling-and thus this stage leads to no selective pressure. On the contrary, the processing stage, from threshing to storage, leads to positive selection when the products of the two harvests are processed separately, a strategy resulting from labor efficiency and risk minimization. Therefore, and from a theoretical point of view, an optimizing behavior tends to support a rapid pathway toward plant domestication, even though the latter is an unconscious outcome of human behavior.

A brief summation of the issue’s articles is presented. This leads to a discussion of thematic issues of concepts, methods, and theory that crosscut the articles. These include use of the EnvCalc2.1 program, some issues of terminology, the theoretical approaches of niche construction as opposed to human behavioral ecology (HBE), and the linkage between technology and subsistence change, notably the difference between biface and microblade production.

For girls and women, marriage under 18 years is commonplace in many low-income nations today and was culturally widespread historically. Global health campaigns refer to marriage below this threshold as ‘child marriage’ and increasingly aim for its universal eradication, citing its apparent negative wellbeing consequences. Here, we outline and evaluate four alternative hypotheses for the persistence of early marriage, despite its associations with poor wellbeing, arising from the theoretical framework of human behavioral ecology. First, early marriage may be adaptive (e.g., it maximizes reproductive success), even if detrimental to wellbeing, when life expectancy is short. Second, parent–offspring conflict may explain early marriage, with parents profiting economically at the expense of their daughter’s best interests. Third, early marriage may be explained by intergenerational conflict, whereby girls marry young to emancipate themselves from continued labor within natal households. Finally, both daughters and parents from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds favor early marriage as a ‘best of a bad job strategy’ when it represents the best option given a lack of feasible alternatives. The explanatory power of each hypothesis is context-dependent, highlighting the complex drivers of life history transitions and reinforcing the need for context-specific policies addressing the vulnerabilities of adolescence worldwide.

The Hawaiian Islands, like many other high volcanic islands, are characterized by a diversity of ecozones, which had ramifications for the types of subsistence strategies that developed within each. Although traditional cultivation practices were highly variable, agricultural systems can be roughly split into windward and leeward forms. Leeward agriculture is differentiated from windward agriculture based on the almost complete dependence on rainfall. Dependence on rainfall, an often-unpredictable resource, creates a high level of risk and uncertainty in agricultural yields. Dryland field-systems were highly susceptible to droughts, potentially resulting in food shortages that would have had various societal consequences, such as increased intergroup conflict, community cooperation, or social inequality. The concepts of risk and uncertainty, derived from human behavioral ecology, are useful for exploring how fluctuations in the availability of resources from droughts influenced agriculturalists in the Hawaiian Islands. Using the Rainfall Atlas of Hawai‘i, a newly published rainfall archive, we investigate spatiotemporal rainfall patterns in the Leeward Kohala Field System (LKFS) on Hawai‘i Island. We employ geostatistical modeling techniques, time-series analysis, and a simulation model to quantify the intensity, frequency, and periodicity of droughts in the LKFS. Our results support previous studies and suggest a high degree of agricultural risk, particularly from ca. AD 1450–1600, with implications for Hawaiian agriculture and emerging sociocultural patterns.

We review contributions from the field of genomics that have helped to inform our understanding of the history and evolutionary ecology of tropical rainforest hunting and gathering behavior by humans, and discuss potential opportunities for future studies. This perspective encompasses i) the question of the antiquity of full-time tropical rainforest occupation, ii) the characterization of biological adaptations to the particular ecological challenges of this habitat, including small adult body size or the “pygmy” phenotype, and iii) the timing and nature of interactions between hunter-gatherer groups and the farming populations that migrated into interior tropical rainforest habitats following the origins of agriculture.

Foraging theory has been widely used to understand patterns associated with obtaining resources and the optimal cost-benefit relationship between forager and resource. However, many analytical theoretical models do not consider the influence of social groups on forager strategy. We analyzed strategies for obtaining resources from two perspectives: individual and social. For the first, we tested hypotheses that addressed whether individual strategies followed the predictions of classic models of foraging theory. In the second approach, we investigated potential social influences on resource-obtaining strategies. Our results suggest that regardless of the strategy adopted by the forager (specialist or generalist), environmental factors, such as abundance, regulated success in obtaining resources. However, we observed that specialists had a greater advantage relative to generalists when resources were abundant. We also observed that forager decision-making was related to the social context of the individual forager, which influenced their strategies.

The high Andes of western South America feature extreme ecological conditions that impose important physiological constraints on humans including high-elevation hypoxia and cold stress. This leads to questions regarding how these environments were colonized by the first waves of humans that reached them during the late Pleistocene. Based on previous research, and aided by human behavioral ecology principles, we assess hunter-gatherer behavioral strategies in the Andean highlands during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Specifically, we formulate three mobility strategies and their archaeological expectations and test these using technological and subsistence evidence from the six earliest well-dated highland sites in northern Chile. Our results suggest that all of the studied sites were temporarily occupied for hunting, processing animals, and toolkit maintenance. The sites also exhibit shared technological features within a curatorial strategy albeit with different occupation intensities. ...

Individually distinctive behavioral traits, or personalities, contribute to population-level processes and ecological interactions important in applied wildlife conservation research. Inter-individual variation in behavioral traits (personality) and correlation among behavioral traits (behavioral syndromes), can influence empirical estimates of population size and structure, models of resource selection and population dynamics, harvest and control in wildlife and fisheries populations, population response to disturbance and novel environments, and the success of reintroductions. Despite the important role that personality and behavioral syndromes play in the ecology and dynamics of wildlife populations, a disconnect between basic and applied research realms continues. While the concept of animal personalities and their role in ecology and evolution is increasingly embraced in the animal behavior, ecology, and evolutionary biology literature, it is less represented in applied wildlife management and conservation literature. We identify 10 research foci, often considered the domain of applied wildlife management and conservation, summarize examples of how these research domains may be influenced by personality and behavioral syndromes, and outline potential implications. We suggest that a focus on individuals in wildlife conservation study can bridge the gap between basic and applied research and incorporate knowledge from both realms towards more effective management, conservation, and recovery of populations.

Current understanding of the processes involved in the Late Pleistocene human settlement of North America has benefited from the application of theoretical perspectives derived from evolutionary ecology, human behavioral ecology, and evolutionary paradigms. These perspectives have increased and expanded our grasp of critical issues including demography and migration strategies; foraging, settlement mobility, and technological strategies; processes of social learning and cultural transmission; mobility and interaction networks; and the involvement of symbolism and prestige in social cohesion. The rapid spread of the Clovis cultural phenomenon across the entire continent has long fascinated archaeologists because of its speed, geographic extent, association with big-game hunting, and impressive degree of technological knowledge and skill. Renewed investigation of this phenomenon points toward the critical role of certain social factors behind its success. In particular, prestige-seeking and symbolic representation of inter-group relationships are increasingly viewed as driving forces in explaining this unique colonization event.

Many scientific fields investigate the relationship between humans and nature from different perspectives and with a wide range of questions. These fields include, for example, human ecology, human behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology, and they are linked through the fact that they all adopt ecological and/or evolutionary hypotheses to understand this phenomenon. In this paper, we define for the first time the field of evolutionary ethnobiology, which seeks to understand these relationships in a broad perspective, considering an interdisciplinary program that integrates the advances, tools, and insights from different scientific fields. This theoretical and methodological integration is necessary for the formation of theoretical bases in ethnobiology and in other areas that investigate the relationship between humans and nature.

Most undergraduate anthropology majors will not pursue postgraduate careers in the discipline, so the greatest value of anthropological training is in providing a holistic sense of cultural relativity and appreciation for human diversity. However, translating anthropology's value to other career paths is frequently hindered by students’ limited exposure to theory and methods and further complicated by the discipline's emphasis on individualistic fieldwork models and research outcomes. We argue these obstacles can be overcome by engaging students in mixed-methods collaborative groups that integrate students and faculty in local research, teaching, and outreach. This socializes undergraduates to view anthropology as naturally collaborative and applicable beyond careers in research. In this article, we outline a program that fuses experimental and field approaches to train students in qualitative and quantitative methods and critical thinking. We then detail implementation of this pedagogical model as a generalizable template that trains students for postgraduate careers outside anthropology.