Human Behavioral Ecology

We use the Ideal Free Distribution from Behavioral Ecology as a null model to interpret the distribution of previously recorded archaeological sites in the Tennessee and Duck River Valleys in central Tennessee from the appearance of Clovis sites in the terminal Pleistocene though the Early Holocene (~13,250-8,880 cal yr BP). We hypothesized that the distribution of Clovis sites would be skewed towards lower elevations, and then subsequent populations would spread to higher elevations over the course of the Younger Dryas and Early Holocene as boreal forests were replaced by mixed hardwood, deciduous forests. Our results are consistent with other studies that have proposed that the Cumberland Plateau and the Appalachian Highlands were not intensively occupied until well after the disappearance of the Clovis culture. Using data provided by the Digital Index of North American Archaeology, we expand our analysis to the entirety of the Tennessee River Valley to explore the colonization of the South Appalachian Mountains in the American Southeast. (Slide) The early record of the American Southeast is well-known for its sheer abundance of sites and artifacts. This observation is built upon two historical themes in Southeastern Archaeology: 1) numerous large-scale projects beginning with the WPA and continuing with contemporary cultural resource management, and 2) the long tradition of private collectors working with professional archaeologists. However, one area that seems to be a blank spot in this coverage is the Appalachian Summit, and to a lesser degree, the Cumberland Plateau. Both Lane and Anderson and Stackelback and Maggard have argued that the dearth of Paleoindian period sites in these areas may be historical in nature in that they may just be the last stops in the colonization of the region. (Slide) Conversely, Stephen and I have argued that there might be an environmental explanation as well: higher elevations were still covered with boreal pine forests, which have low biodiversity when compared to the oak hickory forests found at lower elevation. These positions aren't incompatible, but we argue that taking an approach using human behavioral ecology, and in particular Fretwell and Lucas's Ideal Free Distribution, helps provide context for why some places were sought out initially by people, and other places seem to have been avoided until the Early and Middle Holocene. Here, we summarize our previous arguments for the colonization of the Cumberland Plateau, then extend our argument to the entire Tennessee River drainage.

In the White Mountains of California, a shift in the use of the alpine zone from logistical (Previllage) to residential (Village) occupation circa 1,350 B.P. is evident in the appearance of structures, dense midden sites, and an increase in diet breadth. This change in settlement-subsistence should also be apparent in the representation of skeletal parts of artiodactyls exploited in the alpine zone. Since central-place foragers minimize the costs of transporting large game by increasing field processing in order to reduce transport weight, the logistical use of the alpine zone should be marked by high levels of selective transportation of artiodactyl body parts, while minimal selective transportation to alpine residential bases is expected after c. 1,350 B.P. These predictions are tested through a comprehensive analysis of the skeletal part representation and taphonomy of the faunal assemblages from a suite of White Mountains archaeological sites. Differences in skeletal part representation between Previllage and Village assemblages generally reinforce expectations derived from the central-place foraging model, with some important deviations worth further investigation.

Roadside Animal Detection Systems (RADS) aim to reduce the frequency of wildlife-vehicle collisions. Unlike fencing and wildlife passages, RADS do not attempt to keep animals off the road; rather, they attempt to modify driver behavior by detecting animals near the road and warning drivers with flashing signs. A RADS was installed in Big Cypress National Park (Florida, USA) in 2012 in response to an increased number of Florida panther mortalities. To assess driver response, we measured the speed of individual cars on the road when the RADS was active (flashing) and inactive (not flashing) during the tourist season (November–March) and the off-season (April–October), which vary dramatically in traffic volume. We also used track beds and camera traps to assess whether roadside activity of large mammal species varied between seasons. In the tourist season, the activation of the RADS caused a significant reduction in vehicle speed. However, this effect was not observed in the off-season. Track and camera data showed that the tourist season coincided with peak periods of activity for several large mammals of conservation interest. Drivers in the tourist season generally drove faster than those in the off-season, so a reduction in speed in response to the RADS is more beneficial in the tourist season. Because traffic volume and roadside activity of several species of conservation interest both peak during the tourist season, our study indicates that the RADS has the potential to reduce the number of accidents during this period of heightened risk.

Monogamy appears to have become the predominant human mating system with the emergence of highly unequal agricultural populations that replaced relatively egalitarian horticultural populations, challenging the conventional idea—based on the polygyny threshold model—that polygyny should be positively associated with wealth inequality. To address this polygyny paradox, we generalize the standard polygyny threshold model to a mutual mate choice model predicting the fraction of women married polygynously. We then demonstrate two conditions that are jointly sufficient to make mon-ogamy the predominant marriage form, even in highly unequal societies. We assess if these conditions are satisfied using individual-level data from 29 human populations. Our analysis shows that with the shift to stratified agricultural economies: (i) the population frequency of relatively poor individuals increased, increasing wealth inequality, but decreasing the frequency of individuals with sufficient wealth to secure polygynous

Federal climate policy in the United States is still in its infancy and is in large part characterized by efforts to reach a consensus on the very existence and causality of climate change. This has stemmed from a sociopolitical rift within the country, with the objectivity and usefulness of science attacked by detractors. Scientists who are most qualified to defend their methods and provide information to policymakers rarely have an institutional incentive to share this knowledge, but should be encouraged to communicate their findings to the public, especially those who receive public funding. By not doing so, they are effectively 1) keeping data and their interpretations within the academy alone, despite their importance to the public welfare, 2) losing public support through inactivity, and 3) potentially harming the future availability of research support in what has rapidly become a politically polarized funding atmosphere. Archaeologists and geoscientists in particular, as repositories of past ecological knowledge established through one method (Western academic) of empirical examination, are well positioned to broadcast to the public a variety of societal responses to long-term environmental change as well as the repercussions of political reorganization in the wake of resource shortage-induced societal collapse. This paper summarizes a few promising public outreach engagements on environment and climate change, and suggests further venues for institutional change at the university level. As an example of how multi-causal socio-ecological processes can be concisely packaged for consumption by the public and policymakers without oversimplifying data, we present a synthesis of regional case studies from the New and Old Worlds. Case studies are connected through anthropological processes of cooperation versus exclusion, subsistence shifts, sociopolitical (re)organization and hierarchy, violence, and disease in a preliminary attempt a) to identify the emotional and anecdotal psychology of our own society when it comes to the changing global environment, b) to discuss the issue of scalar differences between ancient and modern ecology, and c) to call on academics to introspectively alter our own attitudes and systems of incentives at the university level.