Journal
EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY
Volume 30, Issue 1, Pages 8-16Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/evan.21884
Keywords
archaeological theory; extended evolutionary synthesis; foraging theory; Homo floresiensis; optimal foraging theory; zooarchaeology
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [BCS-1830816]
- Wenner-Gren Foundation
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The study introduces an optimization foraging model with NCT features designed to infer environmental exploitation by primitive hominins. It demonstrates that NCT can be combined with OFT principles to generate testable foraging hypotheses suitable for zooarchaeological research.
Niche construction theory (NCT) has emerged as a promising theoretical tool for interpreting zooarchaeological material. However, its juxtaposition against more established frameworks like optimal foraging theory (OFT) has raised important criticism around the testability of NCT for interpreting hominin foraging behavior. Here, we present an optimization foraging model with NCT features designed to consider the destructive realities of the archaeological record after providing a brief review of OFT and NCT. Our model was designed to consider a foragers decision to exploit an environment given predation risk, mortality, and payoff ratios between different ecologies, like more-open or more-forested environments. We then discuss how the model can be used with zooarchaeological data for inferring environmental exploitation by a primitive hominin, Homo floresiensis, from the island of Flores in Southeast Asia. Our example demonstrates that NCT can be used in combination with OFT principles to generate testable foraging hypotheses suitable for zooarchaeological research.
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