The Shift to a Predominantly Logistical Mobility Strategy can Inhibit Rather than Enhance Forager Interaction

Abstract

Barton et al. (2011) claim that western Eurasia witnessed a shift in hominin land-use from a predominantly residential mobility strategy to a predominantly logistical mobility strategy during the Late Pleistocene, and that this shift would have led to increased interaction rates between Neandertals and modern humans. But an important assumption of their model—that foragers employing a predominantly logistical mobility strategy cover a greater geographic extent over the course of their lifetimes than foragers employing a predominantly residential mobility strategy—may not be universally true. Here, I reevaluate Barton et al.’s conclusion with a simple foraging-radius model. My results show that a shift to a predominantly logistical mobility strategy can inhibit rather than enhance forager interaction under conditions that presume less of Pleistocene hominin foragers.