The Evolutionary Implications of Variation in Human Hunting Strategies and Diet Breadth during the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Clark, Jamie L.; Kandel, Andrew W.

doi:10.1086/673386

Cited by 56 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…It is clear that without the site level, we cannot observe specific individual or group behaviors. Furthermore, the different methods of data collection used by researchers make inter-site comparisons difficult, as Clark and Kandel (2013) also determined in their large-scale analysis of MSA subsistence. The limitations of radiometric dating further confound our ability to faithfully assign assemblages to different periods, no less MIS or cultural groups.…”

Section: Conclusion: Behavioral Flexibility During the Msamentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Behavioral Flexibility? An Integrative Macro-Scale Approach to Understanding the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Kandel

Bolus

Bretzke

et al. 2015

J Archaeol Method Theory

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The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa represents a period during which anatomically modern humans adopted a series of diverse cultural innovations. Researchers generally attribute these behavioral changes to environmental, neurological, or demographic causes, but none of these alone offers a satisfactory explanation. Even as patterns at site level come into focus, large-scale trends in cultural expansions remain poorly understood. This paper presents different ways to view diachronic datasets from localities in southern Africa and specifically tests hypotheses of environmental and cultural causality. We employ an array of analyses in an attempt to understand large-scale variability observed during the MSA. We evaluated the diversity of stone tool assemblages to model site use, examined transport distances of lithic raw materials to understand patterns of movement, assessed the cultural capacities required to manufacture and use different sets of tools, applied stochastic models to examine the geographic distribution of sites, and reconstructed biome classes and climatic constraints. Our large-scale analysis allowed the research team to integrate different types of information and examine diachronic trends during the MSA. Based on our results, the range of cultural capacity expanded during the MSA. We define cultural capacity as the behavioral potential of a group expressed through the problemsolution distance required to manufacture and use tools. Our dataset also indicates that the actual behavior exhibited by MSA people, their cultural performance as expressed in the archaeological record, is not equivalent to their cultural capacity. Instead we observe that the J Archaeol Method Theory

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Section: Conclusion: Behavioral Flexibility During the Msamentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Behavioral Flexibility? An Integrative Macro-Scale Approach to Understanding the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Kandel

Bolus

Bretzke

et al. 2015

J Archaeol Method Theory

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“…Intensified subsistence may be the result of palaeoecological or nutritional stress, innovative technology associated with the development of complex behaviour during the MSA, or other factors such as ritual or belief systems. Increasing dietary breath, for example, has been shown to be the result of a number of causes (Clark and Kandel, 2013). It would therefore be of interest for future studies to compare the HP with post-HP fauna at KDS.…”

Section: Subsistence Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsistence strategies in the southern Cape during the Howiesons Poort: Taphonomic and zooarchaeological analyses of Klipdrift Shelter, South Africa

Reynard

Discamps

Badenhorst

et al. 2016

Quaternary International

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“…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). A useful method of using archaeozoological data in the analysis of the hunting model is in examination of the degree of exploration of different size classes of animals registered at the site.…”

Section: Analysis Of Hunting Strategies and Dietary Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method has been successfully and widely employed in studies on MSA hunting strategies (cf. Thompson 2010; Thompson and Henshilwood 2011;Clark and Kandel 2013). Given the absence of remains of invertebrates or birds as well as trace amounts of bones of reptiles and fishes as recorded at Affad 23, the table is limited only to mammals.…”

Section: Analysis Of Hunting Strategies and Dietary Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Osypińska

Osypiński

2016

Afr Archaeol Rev

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With the research on the issue in its initial phases, the behaviour and hunting strategies of MSA communities inhabiting the Nile Valley in the Late and Terminal Pleistocene have been fragmentarily recognised thus far. Osteological materials from the area of the Affad Basin in the Middle Nile Valley, recorded in archaeological contexts and dated to the sixteenth millennium BP using OSL methods, have significantly enhanced our knowledge in this regard. It is the first time that an opportunity has occurred to construct a reliable model of the environment exploitation and the behaviour of human groups producing lithic tools using Levallois methods in the Terminal Pleistocene. Archaeozoological analyses have allowed the identification of taxa, species and anatomical origin of remains and enabled the establishment of a database of osteometric measurements. The animals hunted in the Sudanese Nile Valley during the Terminal Pleistocene have been classified with a view to refer the data to the results of analogous studies on MSA in South Africa. The behaviour of the communities occupying the Affad Basin 15,000 years ago was connected to the environment of the tree-covered, swampy savannah and extensive backwaters. Medium-sized antelope (kobus) was hunted most often. People hunted also, albeit less frequently, for large ruminants (buffalo), guenons and large rodents. Remains of fish and mega-fauna (hippopotamus and elephant) have been found in isolated concentrations, away from the camp sites. Remains of molluscs or ostrich eggs have not been registered. The condition of the osteological materials, notably their anatomical distribution, is shown to have been largely affected by wetland environment, rich in iron and manganese.

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The Evolutionary Implications of Variation in Human Hunting Strategies and Diet Breadth during the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Cited by 56 publications

References 71 publications

Increasing Behavioral Flexibility? An Integrative Macro-Scale Approach to Understanding the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Increasing Behavioral Flexibility? An Integrative Macro-Scale Approach to Understanding the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

Subsistence strategies in the southern Cape during the Howiesons Poort: Taphonomic and zooarchaeological analyses of Klipdrift Shelter, South Africa

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

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