Waste Management in Hunter-Gatherer Communities

Havliček, F.I.

doi:10.1515/jlecol-2015-0008

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…It is also unlikely that wolves were attracted to human waste. During the Palaeolithic, it is unlikely that humans occupied sedentary or semi-sedentary sites where substantial amounts of waste could be generated 35 . Moreover, based on isotopic analysis, early dogs had a different diet from humans 36 , 37 suggesting that early dogs were not adapted to consuming human food waste but were selectively fed a terrestrial animal based diet—in our hypothesis, surplus protein.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excess protein enabled dog domestication during severe Ice Age winters

Lahtinen

Clinnick

Mannermaa

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Dogs (Canis familiaris) are the first animals to be domesticated by humans and the only ones domesticated by mobile hunter-gatherers. Wolves and humans were both persistent, pack hunters of large prey. They were species competing over resources in partially overlapping ecological niches and capable of killing each other. How could humans possibly have domesticated a competitive species? Here we present a new hypothesis based on food/resource partitioning between humans and incipient domesticated wolves/dogs. Humans are not fully adapted to a carnivorous diet; human consumption of meat is limited by the liver’s capacity to metabolize protein. Contrary to humans, wolves can thrive on lean meat for months. We present here data showing that all the Pleistocene archeological sites with dog or incipient dog remains are from areas that were analogous to subarctic and arctic environments. Our calculations show that during harsh winters, when game is lean and devoid of fat, Late Pleistocene hunters-gatherers in Eurasia would have a surplus of animal derived protein that could have been shared with incipient dogs. Our partitioning theory explains how competition may have been ameliorated during the initial phase of dog domestication. Following this initial period, incipient dogs would have become docile, being utilized in a multitude of ways such as hunting companions, beasts of burden and guards as well as going through many similar evolutionary changes as humans.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excess protein enabled dog domestication during severe Ice Age winters

Lahtinen

Clinnick

Mannermaa

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Whatever the rationale was for our prehistoric ancestors to practice waste management, the separation of unneeded and potentially harmful refuse from daily living spaces has conferred benefits on the security and evolution of societies. As early as Neolithic times, humans were found to have amassed and separated materials such as mollusk shells, animal bones, debitage, and feces in well-defined dumpsites [3]. The era appears to have marked our ancestors’ first traceable practice of functional space allocation and designation.…”

Section: A Human Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Interventions for Physical and Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities for Greater Los Angeles

Ceñido

Freeman²,

Bazargan‐Hejazi

2019

IJERPH

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The fields of urban planning and public health were conceived under the same pressures and goals at their inception in the 17th and 18th centuries and continue to address the health concerns of an ever-increasing urban population. While the mutual need that both philosophies have for each other becomes more tangible through research and practice, the application of their interrelatedness continues to benefit residents and visitors of mindfully-built environments. In health-conscious Los Angeles, there lacks a comprehensive assessment of health-centered considerations being implemented by those entrusted with the responsibility of shaping our cities. As a greater majority of the world’s population moves into urban settings, built environment interventions play a progressively vital role in addressing physical and mental health concerns. This piece hopes to bring to attention the need for focused and dynamic approaches in addressing health concerns by means of design, planning, and policy, by focusing on the challenges and opportunities faced by the geographic and human resources of the Greater Los Angeles area.

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“…We hypothesize that the more energy is initially invested in producing an artefact, 2 George P. Murdock (1945) included on his list of universal characteristics of every human society attitudes towards cleanliness, which are closely related to waste management practices. In another article I have examined waste management in Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies (Havlíček, 2015), providing a counterargument to the existence of such a historical watershed with the emergence of settlements.…”

Section: Defining and Categorizing Wastementioning

confidence: 99%

Waste Management at the End of the Stone Age

Havliček

Kuča

2017

Journal of Landscape Ecology

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This article describes examples of waste management systems from archaeological sites in Europe and the Middle East. These examples are then contextualized in the broader perspectives of environmental history. We can confidently claim that the natural resource use of societies predating the Lower Palaeolithic was in equilibrium with the environment. In sharp contrast stand communities from the Upper Palaeolithic and onwards, when agriculture appeared and provided opportunities for what seemed like unlimited expansion.

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Waste Management in Hunter-Gatherer Communities

Cited by 6 publications

References 16 publications

Excess protein enabled dog domestication during severe Ice Age winters

Excess protein enabled dog domestication during severe Ice Age winters

Environmental Interventions for Physical and Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities for Greater Los Angeles

Waste Management at the End of the Stone Age

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