Niche Construction Theory and Archaeology

Abstract

Niche construction theory (NCT) is a relatively new development within evolutionary biology, but one that has important implications for many adjacent fields of research, including the human sciences. Here, we present a broad overview of NCT and discuss its application to archaeology. We begin by laying out the basic arguments of NCT, including a historical overview, focusing on how it affects understanding of human behavior and evolution. We then consider how NCT can be used to inform empirical research and how it might profitably be applied in archaeology, using as a case study the origins of agriculture. We suggest that the unrivaled potency of human niche construction, compared with that of other species, means that archaeologists need not be mere consumers of biological insights but can become important contributors to evolutionary theory. The Niche Construction Perspective within Evolutionary BiologyNiche construction theory (NCT) is a fledgling branch of evolutionary biology that places emphasis on the capacity of organisms to modify natural selection in their environment and thereby act as co-directors of their own, and other species', evolution. It is best regarded as an alternative means of thinking about evolutionary problems rather than as a discrete field of evolutionary enquiry. In the same way that advocates of the gene's-eye perspective (Williams 1966;Dawkins 1976) argued that

Introduction — Human-environment interfaces: Assessing the use of palaeoenvironmental information in Mediterranean landscape archaeology

“…Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 2007) produces a reductionist and functionalist approach to past human societies based on a false analogy with human metabolism. Alternatively we can consider the development of persistent artificial niches (Laland and O'Brien, 2010;McClure, 2015;Odling-Smee et al, 2013;Brown et al, 2017) which can have selective advantage and so be related to eco-cultural change. If justification for the full integration of archaeological-historical-social evidence with palaeoenvironmental data is still required, we should remember that resilience wains as societies apply notionally optimal management strategies to a landscapes.…”

Storage: Introduction to the special issue

“…Storing allows preservation and accumulation of foodstuff over longer periods of time, thus reducing dependency on seasonal conditions and food seasonality (Laland and O'Brien 2010), and provides increased socio-ecological resilience under environmental and climatic stress. The accumulation of food through storing is also fundamental for the emergence of wealth and inequality.…”

The Environmental Legacies of Colonialism in the Northern Neotropics: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…The articles in this issue draw on historical ecology (Balée 1998) and especially the ideas of niche construction and ecological inheritance (Laland and O'Brien 2010), which examine how organisms shape, and are shaped by, their environments through selective pressures over long periods (see also Boivin et al 2016). Such research focuses 'on the evolution of ecosystems, the effects of anthropogenic and natural changes and the relationship between humans and their environments' (Braje et al 2017, 2).…”