Evolutionary Foraging Models in Zooarchaeological Analysis: Recent Applications and Future Challenges

Abstract

The last few decades have witnessed a rapid rise in the use of foraging models derived from behavioral ecology to explain and predict temporal and spatial differences in faunal assemblages. Although these models build on conventional ideas about utility firmly embedded in zooarchaeological analyses, when cast in an evolutionary framework these ideas produce some of the most sophisticated and elegant interpretations of archaeofaunas to date. In this article I review the methodological and practical strengths and weaknesses of current zooarchaeological applications of foraging models. Recent applications of foraging models to the zooarchaeological record reveal important variability in human-prey interactions across time and space. Case-specific applications generate theoretical and methodological advances that augment and are complementary to model building in allied fields. Recent applications also identify shortcomings in the underlying assumptions and rationale of some foraging models that mirror past and on-going discussions in anthropology and biology. I discuss how these shortcomings can fruitfully direct future applications and research in foraging economics.

¿intensificación en La Cordillera Del Sur De Mendoza?: Un Enfoque Tafonómico

“…Por otro lado, se encuentran aquellos que consideran que el proceso de intensificación consiste únicamente en un aumento en la producción de los recursos, pero no en la productividad, implicando un decrecimiento en la eficiencia forager (Broughton & Grayson, 1993;Broughton, 1994: 501). Desde esta perspectiva, si bien aumenta la productividad por unidad de tierra explotada, aumentan también los costos, lo que resulta en la disminución de la eficiencia, entendida como un decrecimiento en el promedio de la tasa de retorno energético (Broughton, 1994;Janetski, 1997;Lupo, 2007). En el marco de este modelo, la intensificación implica, además, la necesidad de diversificar la dieta, en cambio, en la perspectiva que propone entenderla como un aumento de la eficiencia, usualmente la intensificación implica la especialización en la explotación de un recurso (Zangrando, 2008;Phoca-Cosmetatou, 2009;Zangrando, et al, 2010).…”

Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley: Archaeozoological and Taphonomic Analysis of Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Affad Basin, Sudan

“…Bird and O'Connell 2006;Kaplan and Hill 1992;Lupo 2007). According to ethnographic and empirical studies, animals ofgreaterbodyweightpreferredtosmaller ones ina hunting ranking, and thus they are ranked higher than smaller animals in classical hunting models (Broughton and Grayson 1993;Kelly 1995;Lupo 2007;Lupo and Schmitt 2005).…”

“…Bird and O'Connell 2006;Kaplan and Hill 1992;Lupo 2007). According to ethnographic and empirical studies, animals ofgreaterbodyweightpreferredtosmaller ones ina hunting ranking, and thus they are ranked higher than smaller animals in classical hunting models (Broughton and Grayson 1993;Kelly 1995;Lupo 2007;Lupo and Schmitt 2005). Theories concerning hunting in the MSA contend that a growing interest in hunting small (lower rank) terrestrial animals is a likely indication of the tendency to diversify and expand the diet (Clark and Kandel 2013;Lombard 2012;Lombard and Clark 2008;Marean et al 2000).It seems,however,that besides theforegoingfactors, the choice of hunting strategies is profoundly influenced by other factors such as opportunities, skills and the availability of tools (poisons and traps including).…”

Environmental change and cultural dynamics of Holocene hunter–gatherers in Northeast Asia: Comparative analyses and research potentials in Cis-Baikal (Siberia, Russia) and Hokkaido (Japan)

“…Another benefit of models is that they help guide the empirical research in terms of formulating right questions to be answered either via empirical work or further simulations. While examples of successful application of this approach abound and continue to grow as demonstrated by a few recent reviews (e.g., Winterhalder and Smith, 2000;Lupo, 2007;Shennan, 2008), no such models so far have been attempted either for the Cis-Baikal or Hokkaido Holocene foragers.…”