We define animal husbandry as prey conservation. Conservation is rare among extant hunters and only likely to occur when prey are highly valued, private goods. The long‐term discounted deferred returns from husbandry must also be greater than the short‐term returns from hunting. We compare the returns from hunting and husbanding strategies as a function of prey body size. Returns from husbanding are estimated using a maximum sustainable yield (MSY) model. Following Charnov (1993), allometric analyses show that the MSY is nearly independent of prey body size. The opportunity costs of husbanding are measured as prey standing biomass times the discount rate. Since standing biomass scales positively with body size, the opportunity costs of husbanding are greater for larger animals. An evolutionary discount rate is estimated following Rogers (1994) to be between 2.4% and 6%. Using these values, the prey body size for which hunting and meat‐only husbanding provide the same return is approximately 40kg. Animals greater than 40kg are predicted to be hunted, [animal husbandry, evolutionary ecology, allometry, hunting, Neolithic transition]
Terrorism is problematic at multiple levels. Social scientists debate its cause; policymakers debate what to do about it; many debate the meaning and political use of the term; and many live in fear of it. Current explanations of terrorism hinge on competing models of decision making. Anthropologists are increasingly influential in decision theory as issues of rationality, culture, and evolutionary psychology are invoked to explain patterns in human decision making. In this article, I review and critique current explanations of terrorism, I relate these explanations to larger debates in decision theory and anthropology, and I present an example of how current schisms may be transcended.
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