Social networks and information: Non-“utilitarian” mobility among hunter-gatherers

Whallon, Robert

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2005.11.004

Cited by 303 publications

(247 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Our results indicate that the use of silcrete quarries along the Boteti River and at Lake Ngami was a repeated behavioural strategy during the MSA. Similar regular long-distance foraging journeys are widely reported amongst hunters and gatherers (e.g., Gould and Saggers, 1985;Meltzer, 1989;Malyk-Selivanova et al, 1998;Kaufman, 2002;Burke, 2006;Migal, 2006;Whallon, 2006;Amick, 2007;Ambrose, 2012;Boulanger et al, 2015). For example, Gould and Saggers (1985) describe extremely large foraging areas from Australia, where raw materials were obtained from quarries almost 300 km away.…”

Section: Potential Territories Foraging Ranges and Additional Sociosupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Such regular or relatively frequent long-distance journeys would have provided a flow of information between what were, in all probability, widely scattered social groups during the MSA. This could, in turn, relate to the establishment and maintenance of a network of social relations that simultaneously would serve as a "safety net" or "buffer" in situations of resource scarcity (also see e.g., Whallon, 2006;Stiner, 2013). Unfortunately, at this stage of our investigations, it is not possible to determine if the procurement of silcrete from the Boteti River and Lake Ngami was made by direct or indirect means; addressing this question remains a priority for future research.…”

Section: Potential Territories Foraging Ranges and Additional Sociomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Going the distance: Mapping mobility in the Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts

Nash

Coulson

Staurset

et al. 2016

Journal of Human Evolution

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This study utilises geochemical provenancing of silcrete raw materials, in combination with chaîne opératoire analyses, to explore lithic procurement and behavioural patterns in the northern Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). New data from the sites of Rhino Cave, Corner Cave, and ≠Gi in northwest Botswana, combined with earlier results from White Paintings Shelter, reveal that the long distance transport of silcrete for stone tool manufacture was a repeated and extensively used behaviour in this region. Silcrete was imported over distances of up to 295 km to all four sites, from locations along the Boteti River and around Lake Ngami. Significantly, closer known sources of silcrete of equivalent quality were largely bypassed. Silcrete artefacts were transported at various stages of production (as partially and fully prepared cores, blanks, and finished tools) and, with the exception of ≠Gi, in large volumes. The import occurred despite the abundance of locally available raw materials, which were also used to manufacture the same tool types. On the basis of regional palaeoenvironmental data, the timing of the majority of silcrete import from the Boteti River and Lake Ngami is constrained to regionally drier periods of the MSA. The results of our investigation challenge key assumptions underlying predictive models of human mobility that use distance-decay curves and drop-off rates. MSA peoples in the Kalahari appear to have been more mobile than anticipated, and repeatedly made costly choices with regard to both raw material selection and items to be transported. We conclude that (i) base transport cost has been overemphasised as a restrictive factor in predictive models, and (ii) factors such as source availability and preference, raw material quality, and potential sociocultural influences significantly shaped prehistoric landscape use choices.3

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Section: Potential Territories Foraging Ranges and Additional Sociosupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Potential Territories Foraging Ranges and Additional Sociomentioning

confidence: 99%

Going the distance: Mapping mobility in the Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts

Nash

Coulson

Staurset

et al. 2016

Journal of Human Evolution

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“…Variation in the distribution of obsidian artifacts in archaeological sites across the island chain may be a function of the specific mode of obsidian procurement that was utilized. Factors such as distance from obsidian source to stone tool manufacturing and use sites, and the overall level and patterns of group mobility have been used to infer direct procurement of lithic raw materials versus indirect procurement (e.g., trade/exchange relationships) (Bamforth, 2002;Binford, 1979;Morrow and Jeffries, 1989;Pecora, 2001;Whallon, 2006). Where distances were short and the cost in terms of time and energy of transporting obsidian were low, obsidian raw material may have been obtained directly from the The ability to explore issues related to the procurement and use of different obsidian sources requires the identification of discrete source groups (Glascock et al, 1998;Speakman and Neff, 2005).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial source evaluation of archaeological obsidian from the Kuril Islands of the Russian Far East using portable XRF

Phillips

Speakman

2009

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…The cultural institutions used for the focus of the analysis will not be unique to the Ju/'hoan Bushmen but those that are widely shared by other known foraging groups. These institutions include egalitarian relations (38), kinship systems and dues (39,40), meat sharing (41), marriage and bride service (42,43), land rights (44)(45)(46), networks cross-cutting groups (47,48), and shared cosmology and ritual to heal individuals and community (49)(50)(51).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen

Wiessner

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

285

181

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Much attention has been focused on control of fire in human evolution and the impact of cooking on anatomy, social, and residential arrangements. However, little is known about what transpired when firelight extended the day, creating effective time for social activities that did not conflict with productive time for subsistence activities. Comparison of 174 day and nighttime conversations among the Ju/'hoan (!Kung) Bushmen of southern Africa, supplemented by 68 translated texts, suggests that day talk centers on economic matters and gossip to regulate social relations. Night activities steer away from tensions of the day to singing, dancing, religious ceremonies, and enthralling stories, often about known people. Such stories describe the workings of entire institutions in a small-scale society with little formal teaching. Night talk plays an important role in evoking higher orders of theory of mind via the imagination, conveying attributes of people in broad networks (virtual communities), and transmitting the "big picture" of cultural institutions that generate regularity of behavior, cooperation, and trust at the regional level. Findings from the Ju/'hoan are compared with other hunter-gatherer societies and related to the widespread human use of firelight for intimate conversation and our appetite for evening stories. The question is raised as to what happens when economically unproductive firelit time is turned to productive time by artificial lighting.Our old people long ago had a government, and it was an ember from the fire where we last lived which we used to light the fire at the new place we were going. . . Di//xao = Oma, 1998 (1) C ontrol of fire had an enormous impact on the life of our hominin ancestors. As Wrangham and Carmody have so cogently argued, the use of fire for cooking greatly increased the digestibility of food and effective provisioning of young, allowing for shorter birth intervals (2-4). Fire altered anatomy, particularly brain size and gut volume, and radically reduced chewing time. Fire protected early humans from predators and provided a new context for social interaction when food was brought to a central site for cooking. Modified landscapes after burning (5) and higher caloric returns from cooked foods lowered the costs of foraged foods, and thus the costs of sharing. Finally, artificial firelight altered circadian rhythms and extended the day (6), freeing time for social interaction that did not conflict with time for subsistence work.Current archaeological evidence indicates that our ancestors had sporadic control of fire by 1 million y ago or longer (7,8) and regular use after approximately 400,000 ka (9). With or following the control of fire, many developments were unfolding that rendered modern humans "unique" (10): extended cooperative breeding (11-13), higher orders of theory of mind (14, 15), religion (16), language (17, 18), social learning and cultural transmission (19,20), cultural institutions and their regulation (21,22), and intergroup cooperation and exchange (...

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Social networks and information: Non-“utilitarian” mobility among hunter-gatherers

Cited by 303 publications

References 18 publications

Going the distance: Mapping mobility in the Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts

Going the distance: Mapping mobility in the Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age through multi-site geochemical provenancing of silcrete artefacts

Initial source evaluation of archaeological obsidian from the Kuril Islands of the Russian Far East using portable XRF

Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen

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