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Showing off, Foraging Models, and the Ascendance of Large-Game Hunting in the California Middle Archaic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jack M. Broughton  and
Frank E. Bayham
Jack M. Broughton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 270 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, [email protected]
Frank E. Bayham
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University, Chico, California, 95929-0400, [email protected]
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Abstract

In a recent paper in American Antiquity (2002:231-256), Hildebrandt and McGuire argue that archaeofaunal patterns in California document an ascendance of artiodactyl hunting during the Middle Archaic. They also suggest that such a trend is inconsistent with predictions derived from optimal-foraging models. Given the apparent failure of foraging theory, they advance a “showing off” model of large-game hunting. While their presentation is intriguing, we do not see a theoretical warrant for predicting that show-off hunting would have increased during the Middle Archaic. We present here an alternative hypothesis for the increase in artiodactyl abundances and the hunting-related patterns they identify. That hypothesis follows directly from the prey model itself under what appears to have been a dramatic artiodactyl population expansion after the drought-dominated middle Holocene period.

Résumé

Résumé

En un artículo reciente en American Antiquity, Hildebrandt y McGuire sostienen que los patrones de archaeofaunas en California documentan un aumento en la cacería de artiodactylos durante el Arcáico medio. También sugieren que tal tendencia es inconsistente con los pronósticos derivados de teoría de forrejeo. Ante este aparente fracaso de la teoría de forrejeo, ellos proponen un modelo de “cacería por prestigio” de caza mayor. Aunque su presentacíon es interesante, no vemos ninguna base teorética para pronosticar que la “cacería por prestigio” hubiera aumentado durante el Arcáico medio. Aquí presentamos una hipótesis alternitiva para explicar el aumento en las abundancias de artiodactylos y los patrones de cacería que esas identifican. Esta hipótesis proviene directamente del mismo modelo de presa bajo lo que parece haber sido una expansíon dramática en la población de artiodactylos después de una época del Holoceno medio dominada por la sequía.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , October 2003 , pp. 783 - 789
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2003

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