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

Jacob Freeman,John M Anderies,Raymond P Mauldin,Robert J Hard,Michael D Petraglia

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0218440

Jacob Freeman, John M Anderies + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218440

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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.

Highlights

The Texas Coastal Plain (TCP) contains some of the oldest and longest used hunter-gatherer mortuary sites in the Americas
Researchers on the Texas Coastal Plain have long argued that the development of a hunter-gatherer mortuary complex between 7000 and 750 cal BP reflects specialization in the use of particular resource zones–habitat partitioning–and the development of territorial ownership–making entrance into a habitat more costly for some individuals [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
Our analysis of the spatial population distribution model (SPDm) allows us to explore the question posed in the introduction: What potential mechanisms drove habitat partitioning on the TCP? A powerful way to gain insight into the processes that may lead to rapid cycling vs. partitioned populations of foragers is to construct a dynamic ecological model of hunter-gatherer habitat use that we call the SPDm

Summary

Introduction

The Texas Coastal Plain (TCP) contains some of the oldest and longest used hunter-gatherer mortuary sites in the Americas. Researchers on the Texas Coastal Plain have long argued that the development of a hunter-gatherer mortuary complex between 7000 and 750 cal BP reflects specialization in the use of particular resource zones–habitat partitioning–and the development of territorial ownership–making entrance into a habitat more costly for some individuals [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Around 3,000 cal BP, cemeteries expanded quickly, peaking in the number of locations and the number of interred individuals between 1,000 and 750 cal BP (page 137 in [1]) (see [3,4,5, 7,8,9]) During this time-period, human bone isotope evidence indicates a restricted use of resources within well delineated habitat types (e.g., riverine savanna vs coastal estuary) [2, 10]. Why? What mechanisms led foragers to partition their use of space on the prehistoric TCP, and how might the process of partitioning relate to the adoption of territorial ownership?

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