Foraging Models, Niche Construction, and the Eastern Agricultural Complex

Abstract

Some proponents of niche construction challenge the validity of optimality models for investigating agricultural origins, but offer no alternative strategy for understanding the economic context of human foraging decisions. They refer to the Eastern Agricultural Complex as an example of how seed cultivation can result from resource enhancement rather than population-induced resource depression, contradicting a prediction inferred from the prey choice model. Low-return seed cultigens were harvested in environments offering more highly ranked hickory nuts in abundance, apparently supporting their interpretation. A marginal value model demonstrates that in years of low mast yield, foragers could more profitably fill food stores from nearby seed plots than from distant hickory trees. Cultivating seeds would have been economically worthwhile when population circumscription constrained mobility, consistent with trends indicating regional population growth. Surges in walnut shell relative to small seeds are also consistent with the model, suggesting that foragers intensified their use of local, anthropogenic vegetation communities as populations grew, stimulating development of horticultural economies. This illustrates the value of foraging models used in conjunction with niche construction for investigating agricultural origins, particularly when model predictions initially fail to accord with archaeological evidence.Algunos defensores del modelo de construcción de nicho disputan la validez de los modelos de estado óptimo en la investigación de los orígenes de la agricultura; sin embargo, no ofrecen una estrategia alternativa para comprender el contexto económico de las decisiones de forrajeo humanas. Estos investigadores utilizan el Complejo Agrícola Oriental como ejemplo de la posibilidad de que el cultivo de semillas pudo haber resultado de la mejora de recursos en lugar de la depresión de recursos inducida por el crecimiento poblacional, lo cual contradice una predicción inferida del modelo de elección de presas. Las semillas de bajo retorno fueron cosechadas en ambientes que ofrecían fuentes de nutrición preferenciales tales como las nueces de nogal en abundancia, aparentemente apoyando estas interpretaciones. Un modelo de valor marginal demuestra que en años de bajo rendimiento de nueces, los recolectores pudieron haber llenado sus depósitos de los semilleros cercanos con más facilidad que si hubieran aprovechado los nogales lejanos. En consistencia con tendencias que indican un crecimiento demográfico regional, el cultivo de semillas habría adquirido valor económico cuando la circunscripción limitaba la movilidad. Los aumentos repentinos de cáscaras de nuez en relación a las semillas pequeñas también son consistentes con este modelo, el cual indica que los recolectores intensificaron la utilización de comunidades vegetales antropogénicas mientras crecía la población, estimulando así el desarrollo de economías hortícolas. Esto ilustra el valor de los modelos de forrajeo utilizados en combinación con la construcci...

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