Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture

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Synopsis
This innovative volume is the first collective effort by archaeologists and ethnographers to use concepts and models from human behavioral ecology to explore one of the most consequential transitions in human history: the origins of agriculture. Carefully balancing theory and detailed empirical study, and drawing from a series of ethnographic and archaeological case studies from eleven locations--including North and South America, Mesoamerica, Europe, the Near East, Africa, and the Pacific--the contributors to this volume examine the transition from hunting and gathering to farming and herding using a broad set of analytical models and concepts. These include diet breadth, central place foraging, ideal free distribution, discounting, risk sensitivity, population ecology, and costly signaling. An introductory chapter both charts the basics of the theory and notes areas of rapid advance in our understanding of how human subsistence systems evolve. Two concluding chapters by senior archaeologists reflect on the potential for human behavioral ecology to explain domestication and the transition from foraging to farming.
Copyright:
2006

Book Details

Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
394 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780520246478
Publisher:
University of California Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
The Regents of the University of California
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Science, Outdoors and Nature, Psychology, Social Studies, Earth Sciences
Submitted By:
170
Proofread By:
170
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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