Should I stay or should I go? The emergence of partitioned land use among human foragers

Abstract

Taking inspiration from the archaeology of the Texas Coastal Plain (TCP), we develop an ecological theory of population distribution among mobile hunter-gatherers. This theory proposes that, due to the heterogeneity of resources in space and time, foragers create networks of habitats that they access through residential cycling and shared knowledge. The degree of cycling that individuals exhibit in creating networks of habitats, encoded through social relationships, depends on the relative scarcity of resources and fluctuations in those resources. Using a dynamic model of hunter-gatherer population distribution, we illustrate that increases in population density, coupled with shocks to a biophysical or social system, creates a selective environment that favors habitat partitioning and investments in social mechanisms that control the residential cycling of foragers on a landscape. Our work adds a layer of realism to Ideal Distribution Models by adding a time allocation decision process in a variable environment and illustrates a general variance reduction, safe-operating space tradeoff among mobile human foragers that drives social change.

On the effect of international human migration on nations’ abilities to attain CO2 emission-reduction targets

“…Paradoxically, emigrants from those nations are small but significant additional contributors to the global consumption of fossil fuels and its associated atmospheric pollution. Those contributions mirror theory [ 42 ] and data [ 26 , 43 ] demonstrating the overarching importance of density and energy as determinants of human migration, distribution and globalization.…”

Repeated long-term population growth overshoots and recessions among hunter-gatherers

“…As several authors argue, this may occur because intensification masks the limits on resource production, for a given set of social and technological conditions (e.g. Anderies, 1998Anderies, , 2003Freeman et al, 2019;Puleston et al, 2014).…”

“…At the convergence of limits, foragers face a well documented tradeoff between increasing labor to maintain a robust supply of food in the face of increasing population density and the vulnerability of a population to declines driven by resource degradation (e.g. Anderies, 1998;Anderies et al, 2019;Anderies, 2006;Barfuss et al, 2018;Carpenter et al, 2015;Freeman and Anderies, 2012;Freeman et al, 2015Freeman et al, , 2019Noy-Meir, 1975;Puleston et al, 2014;Winterhalder et al, 1988).…”

“…K t ( ) In this case, as the production system focused on animals calcifies, people double down on their existing information networks, hunt more, and move more often (e.g. Freeman et al, 2019), generating a population overshoot and recession. It is critical to note that just as behavioral plasticity can cause an overshoot, plasticity in the form of migration can also arrest the decline.…”

Great Basin Survivance (USA): Challenges and Windfalls of the Neoglaciation / Late Holocene Dry Period (3100–1800 cal BP)

“…These resilient, smaller-sized Great Basin communities countered potential genetic hazards through larger-scale, short-term encampments, including fandangos (often financed by piñon surpluses) and a host of other supra-village festivals and gatherings, such as sweat house events, mass pronghorn capture, and jackrabbit drives. Fandangos created temporary residential camps much larger than individual winter villages, significantly expanding the localized gene pool (Freeman et al 2019; McDonald and Hewlett 1999). In addition to their social and ritual importance, fandangos helped disperse critical ecological information to adjust regional population densities.…”