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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.

`This article provides a brief survey of the analysis of outcome risk: what it is, in what circumstance it is important, what the analytical tools are for describing and analysing it, what examples demonstrate the utility of these tools, and what inferences can be drawn from a risk-sensitive approach to behaviour. It also summarises empirical evidence bearing on these ideas. A risk-sensitive analysis of a particular behaviour entails two steps: first, each possible option for the behaviour must be associated with a frequency distribution of its odds. A particular choice of cultivars for one particular field will result in a certain frequency distribution of yields, say of barley. Then each outcome, or in this case each yield, must be assigned a value which might be measured as fitness, utility or some other currency of relevance. Each yield of barley has a certain fitness value to the peasant family engaged in subsistence endeavour.

MY TITLE ALLUDES TO HUNTING. THE IMAGERY IS DELIBERATE: I intend a somewhat predatory engagement with the subject. How do ecological factors affect hunter-gatherer decisions about the harvest of non-produced food resources? What are the ecological strategies of the food quest? And, especially,. how does one go about asking these questions? What is a productive or heuristically useful research procedure? I will suggest that the analytic process is a little like foraging itself. The inquiry is, in a sense, the quarry. © 2009 by Temple University Press. All rights reserved.