Forager mobility,constructed environments,and emergent settlement hierarchy: Insights from altiplano archaeology.

详细信息   

• 作者：Haas ; W. Randall ; Jr.
• 学历：Ph.D.
• 年：2014
• 毕业院校：University of Arizona
• Department：Anthropology
• ISBN：9781321158632
• CBH：3635061
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：15127388
• Pages：198

文摘

This dissertation examines human settlement-size variation through the lens of hunter-gatherer archaeology. Research article 1 presents an analysis of prehistoric hunter-gatherer settlement patterns from a wide range of environmental contexts and in the absence of socioeconomic complexity. Hunter-gather settlement size variation is found to exhibit heavy-tailed statistical structure that is consistent with the statistical structure of modern settlement-size variation,supporting claims that socioeconomic complexity is not requisite for the formation of so-called settlement-size hierarchies in human societies. Following insights from hunter-gatherer anthropology,complex systems research,and ecology,research article 2 proposes that the structure of hunter-gatherer site-size variation is an emergent property of obligate tool use among mobile hunter-gatherers. As materials are moved,modified,and deposited on the landscape,they effectively subsidize the costs of future land use at those locations,which results in additional material deposition,attracting future use,and so on. Using an agent-based model,it is demonstrated that this recursive niche-construction behavior is sufficient to generate the heavy-tailed property of hunter-gatherer site-size variation. The working model is then used to predict other dimensions of hunter-gatherer settlement structure related to artifact clustering and site occupation histories. Research articles 2 and 3 present test results based on Late Archaic Period (7,000-5,000 B.P.) settlement patterns in the Lake Titicaca Basin,Peru. Good agreement is found between the predictions and empirical observations suggesting that ecological niche construction may have played a significant role in structuring hunter-gatherer mobility and land use,which in turn may have created a context for emergent settlement hierarchies.