Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory

308 Pages·2015·4.02 MB·English

by  Robert L. Bettinger

Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology
Series Editor
Jelmer Eerkens
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6090
Robert L. Bettinger • Raven Garvey
Shannon Tushingham
Hunter-Gatherers
Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory
Second Edition
Robert L. Bettinger Raven Garvey
Department of Anthropology Department of Anthropology
University of California, Davis Univeristy of Michigan
Davis, CA Ann Arbor, MI
USA USA
Shannon Tushingham
Department of Anthropology
Washington State University
Pullman, WA
USA
ISSN 1568-2722
Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology
ISBN 978-1-4899-7580-5 ISBN 978-1-4899-7581-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-7581-2
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Preface
Hunter-gatherers are quintessentially anthropological, the subject matter that sepa-
rates anthropology from its sister social science disciplines: psychology, sociol-
ogy, economics, and political science. Though perhaps less so today than a quarter
century ago when Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory was
first published, success in dealing with hunter-gatherers has historically been a key
requirement for any theory aspiring to broad anthropological applicability. As did
the first, this second edition of Hunter-Gatherers measures several such theories—
some narrow, some broad—with respect to their performance on this count—their
relevance to, and implications for, hunter-gatherers and hunter-gatherer research.
The aim here, as with the first edition, is to review ideas rather than literature, of
which there are much more detailed treatments (e.g., Kelly 1995, 2013). We survey
only a fraction of what has been written about hunter-gatherers, ignoring many in-
teresting works, to present those that best illustrate the relevance of hunter-gatherers
to the development and evaluation of important bodies of anthropological theory.
There are important differences between this and the first edition of Hunter-
Gatherers, published in 1991. A good deal of the original remains highly relevant
but, as in other fields of active, high profile work, the last two decades of hunter-
gatherer, ecological, and evolutionary research has seen important empirical and
theoretical advances. This second edition has been revised to reflect these devel-
opments, most notably the chapters dealing with foraging models (Chaps. 4, 5)
and neo-Darwinian theory (Chaps. 7, 8). The general tone of the volume, too, has
changed to reflect the broader anthropological acceptance of neo-Darwinian models
and theories than was true in 1991, when neo-Darwinian theory was a new approach
to hunter-gatherers, particularly among archaeologists. The first edition correctly
anticipated skepticism and resistance to these ideas, and noted the many underde-
veloped aspects of the approach, issues that have since been largely remedied. This
edition approaches those same topics with the confidence born of over 20 years of
fruitful application.
The book begins with two chapters that deal with the history of anthropologi-
cal research and theory in relation to hunter-gatherers. The point is not to present
a comprehensive or evenhanded accounting of developments. Rather, we sketch a
history of selected ideas that have determined the manner in which social scientists
v
vi Preface
have viewed, and thus studied, hunter-gatherers. This lays the groundwork for sub-
jects subsequently addressed and establishes two fundamental points. First, hunter-
gatherer research has always been a theoretical enterprise; the social sciences have
always portrayed hunter-gatherers in ways that serve their theories. Second, these
theoretical treatments have generally been either evolutionary or materialist—or
both—in perspective. The remainder of the book explores evolutionary and mate-
rialist perspectives in relation to contemporary theoretical contributions to hunter-
gatherer studies at two levels.
The first level consists of hunter-gatherer research that is governed by theories
of limited sets, that is, those that speak to limited sets of behaviors. By definition
it is the job of limited theories to reconcile general principles to particular cases by
showing how such cases result from the general principle in the presence of spe-
cial conditions. The presence of such conditions is both necessary and sufficient to
identify a case as belonging to the set for which the theory is intended—such clas-
sifications being, thus, theory based. It is, further, the interaction between the gen-
eral principle and the salient properties of the special, set-defining conditions that
accounts for what is observed. Theories of limited sets can serve as either interim
steps in the construction of general theories or means of articulating extant general
theory (Kuhn 1962, pp 24–34). Either way it is clear that limited theories are no less
“theoretical” than theories of general sets—they are simply less general.
By design, limited theories are practical and meant for application in the real
world: They are theories that have, in archaeological parlance, direct test implica-
tions. We attend particularly to research guided by two limited theories that have
dominated hunter-gatherer archaeology and ethnography over the last decade: mid-
dle-range theory research (the subject of Chap. 3) and optimal foraging theory (the
subject of Chaps. 4–5). The sections of these chapters dealing with diet breadth,
patch choice, the marginal value theorem, central place foraging, and linear pro-
graming have been expanded and revised. Two new models—one related to front-
versus back-loaded resource storage and another to technological investment—
have been added. Applications have been revised to include alternative currencies
and constraints, discussion of body size as a proxy for resource ranking, resource
intensification, and the ideal free distribution.
The second, and higher, level of hunter-gatherer research addressed here is gov-
erned by theories of general sets, or general theories. Such theories are constructed
of fundamental principles that are meant to apply to widely divergent phenomena
and for that reason are often highly abstract and their meaning difficult to grasp. The
general theories in question here attempt to account for the elementary logic that
underlies human behaviors of all kinds; our interest in them relates to their potential
application to hunter-gatherers. Of special importance here are theoretical construc-
tions grounded in two fundamentally different schools of thought: neo-Marxism,
including especially structural/French Marxism (the subject of Chap. 6) and neo-
Darwinism, within which we distinguish and treat separately evolutionary ecology
(Chap. 7) and more recent theories of cultural transmission (Chap. 8). All three
chapters have been substantially revised.
Preface vii
Chapter 6 of this edition includes a fresh perspective on Marxist thought in
hunter-gatherer studies. Chapter 7 ( Neo-Darwinian Theory) has been expanded to
include discussion of evolutionary archaeology, “showoff hunting,” and costly sig-
naling, which has become a popular explanation of foraging behavior, particularly
when archaeological or ethnographic data do not conform to modeled expectations
of diet breadth based on caloric returns. Many such explanations misapply the bio-
logical concept of a costly signal and we address this here. Chapter 8 ( Neo-Darwin-
ian Cultural Transmission) has likewise been substantially revised. On page 202 of
the original edition, Bettinger noted that, “it is presently difficult to mount a con-
vincing argument in support of cultural inheritance theory on the basis of the em-
pirical evidence, partly because these theories have only recently been developed
and partly because the data available are insufficiently detailed.” This is no longer
true. Significant work has since been done in this realm, with both ethnographic
and archaeological data sets. The new edition clarifies terminology and provides
extended discussions of costs associated with the common types of transmission,
the evolution of ethnic markers, and the role of coordinated punishment in cultural
evolution. Applications include a revised approach to the Upper Paleolithic Transi-
tion and cultural transmission evident in a large sample of projectile points from the
Great Basin.
Divvying of revisions between coauthors was organic and responsibilities were
shared. Tushingham and Bettinger revised and updated Chaps. 1, 3, 5, and 6; Gar-
vey and Bettinger revised and updated Chaps. 2, 4, 7, 8, and 9. Tushingham added
the front-back loading section to Chap. 4.
In closing, we note that we seem at times to be addressing two rather different
audiences, one archaeological, and the other anthropological. This is intentional, for
as we hope to make clear, hunter-gatherers are today—and have been historically—
a common ground upon which converge many disparate subdisciplines within an-
thropology and, within those subdisciplines, many different points of view. As we
hope to make clear further, the development and current state of hunter-gatherer
research is such that there is no clear distinction between archaeology and ethnol-
ogy as regards either theory or subject matter. Indeed, the time has long since past
when hunter-gatherer archaeologists could afford to ignore anthropological theory
and theorists and the ethnographic record, just as the time is also long past when
anthropologists and ethnographers interested in hunter-gatherers could afford to ig-
nore archaeological theory and theorists and the archaeological record.
References
Kelly, R. L. (1995). The foraging spectrum: Diversity in hunter-gatherer lifeways. Washington
D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Kelly, R. L. (2013). The lifeways of hunter-gatherers: The foraging spectrum. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Acknowledgments
The list of individuals who contributed in fundamental ways to this book is almost
endless. It obviously includes those who figured in the writing of the first edition,
most prominently Bill Davis, Peter Richerson, and Robert Boyd but also Clyde
Wilson, Dave Meltzer, Aram Yengoyan, Bruce Winterhalder, Marty Orans, Tom
Beidelman, Don Grayson, Dave Thomas, Jim O’Connell, Dave Madsen, Judy Po-
lanich, Gary Macey, and Mike Delacorte. Pete Richerson’s name is likewise on the
list of individuals who contributed in significant ways to this edition, which also
includes Richard McElreath, Joe Henrich, and Jelmer Eerkens.
Finally, all three of us wish to acknowledge the help and support provided by
our families: Sharon and Ian Bettinger (RLB); Andrew Marshall (RG); and Miles,
Harrison, and Greer Lantier (ST). We spent many precious hours on this book that
should have been spent with them.
ix
Contents
Part I Historical Approaches to Hunter-Gatherers
1 Progressive Social Evolution and Hunter-Gatherers .......................... 3
Introduction ............................................................................................... 3
The Developmental Model: Hunter-Gatherers as Primitives .............. 5
The Ecological Model: Hunter-Gatherers in Harmony
with Environment ................................................................................ 6
Discussion ........................................................................................... 7
Social Evolution and Primitive Hunter-Gatherers:
Progress to Perfection ............................................................................... 10
Progressive Social Evolution as Political Theory ............................... 11
Social Policy and Progressive Evolutionary Theory ........................... 14
Primitives, Environment, and British Social Evolution ............................ 17
Theories of Environment .................................................................... 18
Conjectural Fieldwork ......................................................................... 20
Spencer’s Case for the Importance of Environment ........................... 21
British Hunter-Gatherer Research: Ethnography ...................................... 22
The Priority of Theory ........................................................................ 24
British Hunter-Gatherer Research: Archaeology ...................................... 25
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 28
References ................................................................................................. 28
2 The History of Americanist Hunter-Gatherer Research .................... 33
The Early Years: 1600–1880 ..................................................................... 33
Jefferson on Primitives and the New World Environment .................. 35
Morgan ................................................................................................ 36
Environment and Ecology in Early American
Anthropology: 1880–1920 ........................................................................ 37
Powell and Social Progress ................................................................. 38
xi
xii Contents
The Museum Connection .................................................................... 39
Technogeography and Social Evolution ............................................. 40
McGee’s Seri Ethnography ................................................................. 41
After Powell ........................................................................................ 44
Materialism and Evolution in American Archaeology: 1920–1960 .......... 45
The Pecos Classification ..................................................................... 45
The Midwestern Taxonomic System ................................................... 46
Summary ................................................................................................... 46
Research After 1960: Hunter-Gatherers as Ecologists .............................. 47
The Archaeological Connection .......................................................... 50
Discussion ........................................................................................... 52
The Troubles of Neofunctionalism ..................................................... 56
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 58
References ................................................................................................. 59
Part II Theories of Limited Sets
3 Middle-Range Theory and Hunter-Gatherers .................................... 67
Introduction ............................................................................................... 67
The Tradition of Middle-Range Research in Archaeology ................. 68
Defining Middle-Range Theory in Archaeology ................................ 70
Foragers and Collectors ............................................................................. 70
Foragers ............................................................................................... 72
Collectors ............................................................................................ 73
Great Basin Foragers and Collectors ......................................................... 76
The Processes of Site Formation ............................................................... 78
Nunamiut Butchering .......................................................................... 78
The Scavenging Hypothesis ................................................................ 80
Late Prehistoric Mountain Sheep Kills in the Great Basin ................. 81
The Myth of Middle-Range Theory .......................................................... 81
References ................................................................................................. 87
4 Hunter-Gatherers as Optimal Foragers ............................................... 91
Simple Models of Optimal Foraging ......................................................... 91
The Diet Breadth Model ..................................................................... 92
The Patch Choice Model ..................................................................... 96
Patch Residence Time: The Marginal Value Theorem ........................ 99
Central Place Foraging ........................................................................ 105
Storage: The Front–Back Loaded Model ............................................ 109
Model of Technological Investment .................................................... 113
Applications of Simple Optimal Foraging Models ................................... 116
Diet Breadth: Alternative Rankings, Currencies, and Constraints ...... 118
Intensification and the Transition to Agriculture ................................ 120
Mobility: The Ideal Free Distribution ................................................. 122
Travelers and Processors ..................................................................... 125