5 - Explanatory/Predictive Models of Hunter–Gatherer Adaptation

Abstract

This chapter presents an assessment of current research on hunter–gatherer adaptation. Hunter–gatherer studies are at a critical point in their development. In a broad sense, the fundamental problem in current hunter–gatherer research is that, as a consequence of numerous technical and methodological breakthroughs, there is an incredible array of information about aboriginal subsistence-settlement systems, sociopolitical organization, and demography. At the same time, however, there is a lack of the theoretical tools to place these data in a coherent explanatory framework. The chapter presents predictive models such as models of environment, models of subsistence, models of settlement or location, and models of population, which offer what may well be one viable approach to the development of such a framework, although it is far from clear that the data presently in hand or potentially available in the foreseeable future are of the kind or quality necessary to meet the rather rigid requirements imposed by these models.