DOCSLIB.ORG

Reconstructing Prehistoric Demography: What Role for Extant Hunter-Gatherers?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Reconstructing Prehistoric Demography: What Role for Extant Hunter-Gatherers? Received: 3 October 2019 Revised: 17 February 2020 Accepted: 6 October 2020 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21869 REVIEW ARTICLE Reconstructing prehistoric demography: What role for extant hunter-gatherers? Abigail E. Page1 | Jennifer C. French2 1Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Abstract London, UK Demography is central to biological, behavioral, and cultural evolution. Knowledge of 2 Department of Archaeology, Classics and the demography of prehistoric populations of both Homo sapiens and earlier mem- Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK bers of the genus Homo is, therefore, key to the study of human evolution. Unfortu- nately, demographic processes (fertility, mortality, migration) leave little mark on the Correspondence Abigail E. Page, Department of Population archeological and paleoanthropological records. One common solution to this issue is Health, London School of Hygiene and the application of demographic data from extant hunter-gatherers to prehistory. Tropical Medicine, London, UK. Email: [email protected] With the aim of strengthening this line of enquiry, here we outline some pitfalls and their interpretative implications. In doing so, we provide recommendations about the Funding information Leverhulme Trust, Grant/Award Number: ECF- application of hunter-gatherer data to the study of demographic trends throughout 2016-128; Medical Research Council, Grant/ human evolution. We use published demographic data from extant hunter-gatherers Award Number: MR/P014216/1; Wenner- Gren Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 9862 to show that it is the diversity seen among extant hunter-gatherers—both intra- and inter-population variability—that is most relevant and useful for understanding past hunter-gatherer demography. KEYWORDS demography, fertility, hunter-gatherers, life history, prehistory 1 | INTRODUCTION Our knowledge of demography in prehistory, however, faces one fundamental obstacle: the lack of direct data. Fertility, mortality, and Demography and evolution are intrinsically intertwined. Evolution is migration leave little mark on the archeological and paleoanthropolog- driven by the propagation of genes, which is determined by the key ical records. Researchers studying the outcome of variation in these processes of survival (mortality), fertility, and dispersal (migration) of demographic processes (changes in population size, density, and individuals.1,2 Demographic trends influence the age- and sex- growth rate) have met with more success, but are largely limited to structure of a society, altering the balance between kin and non-kin the comparison of relative changes in these measures.9 Furthermore, within individuals' social networks,3 with consequences for coopera- most established paleodemographic methods10–14 have limited appli- tion, parental investment, and information exchange.4–6 Demography cability to the Pleistocene contexts (2.6 million to 12,000 years further influences the development and variability of human culture, ago15) that constitute much of prehistory. Genetic data (from both through its recognized role in trait transmission and cumulative cul- ancient and living populations) inform on some elements of prehistoric ture.7,8 Knowledge of the demography of prehistoric populations of demography, notably interbreeding between different hominin taxa, both Homo sapiens and earlier members of the genus Homo thus has and estimates of effective population sizes,16,17 but address a limited the potential to offer vital insights into human evolution across multi- range of demographic questions, and ancient DNA sequences are ple domains. comparatively rare. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2020 The Authors. Evolutionary Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Evolutionary Anthropology. 2020;1–14. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/evan 1 2 PAGE AND FRENCH A common solution to this lack of direct data is to look to the deaths, and migration, fieldworkers conduct detailed self-reported richer corpus of demographic data on extant hunter-gatherers. Demo- genealogies. However, self-reports rarely produce a fully accurate graphic data from recent ethnographically-documented hunter- demographic record; recall bias is common, leading to an gatherer populations are important tools in prehistoric demographic underreporting of births, miscarriages, stillbirths, and infant mortality research. Ethnographic data play a key role in developing frameworks due to either forgetfulness, a lack of cultural recognition of a “birth” of prehistoric demography (e.g., Reference 19) and providing absolute or simple miscommunication.6,25 Taboos may further exacerbate inac- values of prehistoric demographic variables (population size, density, curacies. For example, the Agta use nicknames to refer to their in-laws and fertility and mortality rates) for use as descriptive statistics and/or since it is forbidden to use their names. As different nicknames are input parameters in formal demographic models.20–24 While certainly used, reconciling different genealogies can be challenging.26 Self- not complete, nor without its own issues (something we return to reporting is also an issue for aging; hunter-gatherers often have a very below), compared to the archeological and paleoanthropological different, or no concept of calendar time, thus, no clear idea of how records, a mass of quantitative data on fertility, and to a lesser degree, old they are.27 Precise estimates of ages are fundamental to the con- mortality, and migration, are available for multiple hunter-gatherer struction of an accurate demographic record, and the subsequent populations. Here, we examine critically the wider relevance and study of life history. Obtaining accurate age estimates is the major application of demographic data from extant hunter-gatherers to pre- challenge of hunter-gatherer demographic studies (Box 2). history (with a particular focus on the Pleistocene). The explicit aim of Researchers face two further key issues. First, hunter-gatherer this paper is to highlight key theoretical and methodological consider- population sizes are small (800–1,000 individuals28,29) and are espe- ations in both producing and using hunter-gatherer demographic data cially vulnerable to stochastic (random) demographic variation. In to study prehistoric demography. Consequently, our main goal is to terms of long-term growth or decline, in a large population, individual communicate these considerations beyond evolutionary anthropol- events are “averaged” out, while in smaller groups this random varia- ogy, and address our colleagues in archeology and paleoanthropology, tion has disproportionate influence; patterns of growth and decline who may be unfamiliar with the relevant literature and prevailing are far more extreme and volatile in small populations.30,31 Conse- approaches. quently, in a small population an extremely low or high fertility rate We highlight five pitfalls faced by researchers working with past may be the outcome of the size of the sample. HBE frequently explore and present hunter-gatherers, and thus applicable to both anthropolo- whether a behavior is adaptive32 and a surprisingly low fertility rate gists and archeologists. These pitfalls are not new, and we are not the can be interpreted as the product of maladaptive behavior. This may first to recognize them. However, our analysis suggests that these pit- be the case. However, we must also consider that a fertility rate is the falls are not clearly communicated beyond disciplinary confines (Box product of a random collection of individual events, reflective of the 1). Reasons for opaqueness are miscommunication of methodology, study population, and data collection protocols (i.e., few births occur assumptions which conflict with wider biological principles, and the in the population during data collection). Furthermore, small sample uncritical application of single group demographic values or “hunter- sizes are one reason why data on older age mortality is lacking in com- gatherer” averages to the past. This has important implications for our parison to data on fertility rates and pre-adult (age 16 and below) understanding of prehistoric demography. We draw on data from mortality in hunter-gatherers. As the cohort ages more individuals die, extant hunter-gatherers to argue that the between and within- and the sample at risk of death becomes smaller. With small population variability in demographic variables seen among extant populations, the sample size at older ages is likely too small to accu- hunter-gatherers is best equipped to provide insights into past rately estimate mortality rates (i.e., when the mortality rate is less than hunter-gatherer demography. Through the lens of human behavioral 1/n18,33). Given the importance of age-specific mortality rates in ecology (HBE) these data allow us to examine how hunter-gatherers human evolution, demography and life history models33 (see pitfall today react to selective pressures, providing the tools with which to two) researchers working on prehistory should pay attention to the identify parallels in prehistory. sample sizes from which key figures arise, acknowledging the large confidence intervals around the mortality estimates. The relatively short timeframe of ethnographic fieldwork intro- 2 | PITFALL ONE: NOT RECOGNIZING THE
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Demographic Uniformitarianism: the Theoretical Basis of Prehistoric Demographic Research 5 and Its Cross-Disciplinary Challenges
    1 Accepted for publication 16/03/2020 at Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (Special 2 Issue: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Prehistoric Demography) 3 4 Demographic uniformitarianism: the theoretical basis of prehistoric demographic research 5 and its cross-disciplinary challenges 6 Jennifer C. French1 & Andrew T. Chamberlain2 7 1 UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY UK 8 [email protected] 9 2 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Stopford Building, 10 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, [email protected] 11 12 13 Abstract 14 A principle of demographic uniformitarianism underpins all research into prehistoric demography 15 (palaeodemography). This principle—which argues for continuity in the evolved mechanisms 16 underlying modern human demographic processes and their response to environmental stimuli 17 between past and present— provides the cross-disciplinary basis for palaeodemographic 18 reconstruction and analysis. Prompted by the recent growth and interest in the field of prehistoric 19 demography, this paper reviews the principle of demographic uniformitarianism, evaluates how it 20 relates to two key debates in palaeodemographic research and seeks to delimit its range of 21 applicability to past human and hominin populations. 22 23 Keywords: Prehistoric demography; Uniformitarianism; Population dynamics; Life History; Archaic 24 hominins 25 1. Introduction 26 Like many historical sciences, prehistoric demography relies on a doctrine of uniformitarianism for 27 some of its foundational principles. Uniformitarianism is the adherence to the axiom that processes 28 that occurred in the past (and so cannot be directly experienced) were nonetheless likely to 29 resemble those that are observable in the present day.
    [Show full text]
  • Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory: Using Calibrated 14C Dates As Population Proxies Felix Riede University College London, [email protected]
    Human Biology Volume 81 Issue 2 Special Issue on Demography and Cultural Article 11 Macroevolution 2009 Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory: Using Calibrated 14C Dates as Population Proxies Felix Riede University College London, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol Recommended Citation Riede, Felix (2009) "Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory: Using Calibrated 14C Dates as Population Proxies," Human Biology: Vol. 81: Iss. 2-3, Article 11. Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol81/iss2/11 Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory: Using Calibrated 14C Dates as Population Proxies Abstract Although difficult to estimate for prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations, demographic variables—population size, density, and the connectedness of demes—are critical for a better understanding of the processes of material culture change, especially in deep prehistory. Demography is the middle-range link between climatic changes and both biological and cultural evolutionary trajectories of human populations. Much of human material culture functions as a buffer against climatic changes, and the study of prehistoric population dynamics, estimated through changing frequencies of calibrated radiocarbon dates, therefore affords insights into how effectively such buffers operated and when they failed. In reviewing a number of case studies (Mesolithic Ireland, the origin of the Bromme culture, and the earliest late glacial human recolonization of southern Scandinavia), I suggest that a greater awareness of demographic processes, and in particular of demographic declines, provides many fresh insights into what structured the archaeological record. I argue that we cannot sideline climatic and environmental factors or extreme geophysical events in our reconstructions of prehistoric culture change.
    [Show full text]
  • Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Prehistoric 3 Demogr
    1 Accepted for publication 07/10/2020 2 3 Contribution to special issue “Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Prehistoric 4 Demography” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 5 6 7 8 A Manifesto for Palaeodemography in the 21st Century 9 10 Jennifer C. French1 11 Philip Riris2 12 Javier Fernandéz-López de Pablo3 13 Sergi Lozano4 14 Fabio Silva2 15 16 1. Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool; UCL 17 Institute of Archaeology ([email protected]) 18 2. Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions, Bournemouth University 19 3. I.U. de Investigación en Arqueología y Patrimonio Histórico, University of Alicante 20 4. University of Barcelona 21 22 23 24 1. Defining palaeodemography: aims and scope 25 26 Demography is the study of human populations and their structure, i.e. the composition of 27 populations, and the subdivision of the metapopulation into smaller subunits. Palaeodemography 28 refers to the study of the demography of ancient populations for which there are no written sources 29 (broadly synonymous with ‘prehistoric demography’) [1]. Palaeodemography shares the core 30 aims of its present-day counterpart; namely, to document and explain changes within, and 31 variations between, the size and structure of human populations. However, by definition, no direct 32 demographic data–equivalent to modern-day censuses or registration forms–exist for prehistoric 33 populations. Instead, palaeodemographic information is derived from a wide range of proxies, 34 which only indirectly inform on demographic processes and parameters. 35 1 36 Accordingly, at present we consider palaeodemography to be less an independent field akin to 37 demography proper, and more an interlinked set of cross-disciplinary interests sharing the 38 common aims of reconstructing and analysing prehistoric population histories.
    [Show full text]
  • PRECONTACT POPULATION DECLINE and COALESCENCE in the SOUTHERN SOUTHWEST the Phoenix Basin Was the Heartland of the Hohokam Regional System for Nearly a Millennium
    PRECONTACT POPULATION DECLINE AND COALESCENCE IN THE SOUTHERN SOUTHWEST The Phoenix Basin was the heartland of the Hohokam regional system for nearly a millennium. Hundreds of miles of irrigation canals supported more than 20,000 people during the early 1300s, but the valley was devoid of inhabitants when the first Jesuit missionary visited the area in the 1690s (note all dates are A.D.). The magnitude of this population loss has been a topic of research for more than a century, yet there is still no widely accepted explanation. Furthermore, recent research has shown that the entire southern Southwest experienced a severe reduction in population prior to the arrival of Spaniards in the New World in 1540. Over the long term the American Southwest experienced population growth. What can account for such a dramatic reversal of this trend, and why is the decline so great in the southern Southwest? This proposal requests funding to investigate evidence of precontact population decline in the Phoenix Basin and three other areas in the southern Southwest. This research builds directly on work partly funded by NSF in the San Pedro Valley of southeastern Arizona. Our San Pedro Valley research revealed a complex demographic history, and we found that a theoretical model of coalescence helped us to understand the interrelationship of late precontact demographic processes. In the American Southeast, a similar coalescent society model has been applied to the early historic period when population decline and related disruptions led to cultural reorganization and formation of aggregated, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual communities. We postulate that a variety of social stresses stimulated the formation of coalescent communities in the Southwest by 1250 to 1300.
    [Show full text]
  • August 10, 2012 CURRICULUM VITAE George J. Armelagos
    August 10, 2012 CURRICULUM VITAE George J. Armelagos I. PERSONAL Department of Anthropology 108 Anthropology Emory University Atlanta, Georgia 30322 Phones: 404-727-2215 (Office) 404-727-2860 (Office FAX) e-mail: [email protected] II. EDUCATION Lincoln Park High School 1950-1954 University of Michigan 1954-1958 B.A. Degree 1958 University of Michigan Medical School 1958-1959 University of Michigan -Rackham Graduate School 1959-1960 University of Colorado 1961-1968 M.A. Degree 1963 Ph.D. Degree 1968 III. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Goodrich C. White Professor of Anthropology, 2005- Chair, Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 2003 -2009 Professor, Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 1993-2005 Professor and Chairman, University of Florida, Gainesville 1990-1993 Affiliate Curator, Department of Anthropology, Florida State Museum of Natural History. 1991- 1993 Professor, Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, 1978-1990. Professor Emeritus, 1991 Visiting Professor, University of Colorado, summer 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 Associate Professor, Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, February 1973-1978 Director, University of Massachusetts Honors Program, 1974-1977 Acting Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, summer 1971, 1972. Assistant Professor in Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, September 1968-1973 Visiting Professor, National Science Foundation Summer Institute for College Teachers in Anthropology, University of Colorado, summer 1971. Visiting
    [Show full text]
  • Population Dynamics in the Late Glacial Refugium of Southwest France
    Population Dynamics in the Late Glacial Refugium of Southwest France C.M. Collins PhD November 2012 University of Sheffield Acknowledgements I would first of all like to thank my supervisor Andrew Chamberlain for ad- vising me throughout my PhD. In addition many people aided me through- out the three years of my PhD. I am grateful to Pierre-Yves Demars for giving me access to his archaeological database. I am also grateful to Matt Grove for allowing me to utilize his method for working with radiocarbon dates and assisting me in doing so. As well as providing help with Matlab and LATEX, James Hook also joined me in many interesting conversations. I would also like to thank the following people for general useful discus- sions and advice: Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, Paul Mellars, Michael White, Caitlin Buck, Rob Dinnis, Jenni French, Tom O'Mahoney, Tom Booth and Isabelle Heyerdahl-King. Tom Hannan was kind enough to read a draft of my thesis and provide detailed feedback. I am also grateful to Bob John- ston for taking me on as a PhD student after the departure of Andrew from Sheffield in my final weeks of study. The University of Sheffield provided me with a scholarship that supported this endeavour. Thanks also go to my parents and friends for supporting me over the past years. Abstract In this thesis I explore population processes in the Upper Palaeolithic of Southwest France. Traditionally, prehistorians have regarded the region as a `refugium' during the Last Glacial Maximum, into which populations contracted during periods of climatic deterioration in Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Post-Invasion Demography of Prehistoric Humans in South America Amy Goldberg1*, Alexis M
    LETTER doi:10.1038/nature17176 Post-invasion demography of prehistoric humans in South America Amy Goldberg1*, Alexis M. Mychajliw1* & Elizabeth A. Hadly1,2 As the last habitable continent colonized by humans, the site of Archaeological evidence of the initial peopling of South America multiple domestication hotspots, and the location of the largest is scarce, with many of the earliest sites found in Patagonia, despite Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, South America is central to geographic constraints and genetic data suggesting a north-to-south human prehistory1–7. Yet remarkably little is known about human colonization route1–6. Indeed, once there is evidence of occupation, population dynamics during colonization, subsequent expansions, humans were already dispersed throughout the continent. Although and domestication2–5. Here we reconstruct the spatiotemporal humans are geographically widespread, initial site and date densities patterns of human population growth in South America using a suggest low overall population sizes (Fig. 2a and Extended Data newly aggregated database of 1,147 archaeological sites and 5,464 Figs 1 and 2). However, because sea levels were ~ 100 m lower during calibrated radiocarbon dates spanning fourteen thousand to the interval of colonization and a coastal route of migration has been two thousand years ago (ka). We demonstrate that, rather than a hypothesized, the earliest archaeological sites may be on the continental steady exponential expansion, the demographic history of South shelf that is now underwater3–6. Americans is characterized by two distinct phases. First, humans Small human population sizes are almost immediately followed by spread rapidly throughout the continent, but remained at low a rapid increase in the density of radiocarbon dates and the number population sizes for 8,000 years, including a 4,000-year period of of occupied sites from 13 ka to 9 ka (Figs 2 and 3).
    [Show full text]
  • Demography of the Ðerdap Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition
    Demography of the Đerdap Mesolithic–Neolithic transition Mary Jackes, Mirjana Roksandić and Christopher Meiklejohn Abstract: Models for the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition are critically dependent on demographic variables. A major issue has been whether Mesolithic populations were stationary or increasing in demographic terms. The development of methods allowing for palaeodemographic comparison among archaeological skeletal samples provides the opportunity to test assumptions about the adequacy of samples and about changes in fertility during the European Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. Previous work has suggested that the Mesolithic was a period of stationary population in the far west and north of Europe, while the Neolithic brought with it a significant increase in fertility. We apply our standardized palaeodemographic methods to data from Ðerdap skeletal samples to examine whether period assignments need reassessment, and whether the Neolithic brought increased fertility to the Iron Gates region. Our conclusions indicate that continuing reassessment of the assignment of Lepenski Vir skeletons to archaeological periods is needed, that Mesolithic populations were stationary, and that there is a high probability for increased fertility rates in the Neolithic at Lepenski Vir. Keywords: Đerdap, demography, Mesolithic, Neolithic, transition, Lepenski Vir Introduction A key element of osteological work relates to the accurate determination of demographic variables. Problems involved The shift to food production and the Neolithic is one of the in the determination of skeletal age, especially in adults, are great transitions in human history. In this paper we will ex- important here (Jackes 1992, 1994, 2000). Whereas markers amine the evidence provided by skeletons excavated from the of sex in adult skeletons are relatively consistent throughout Đerdap sites in order to test whether, prior to the introduction the life span, age markers are dependent on the process of of agriculture, the Đerdap Mesolithic population was in- ageing itself.
    [Show full text]
  • The Demography of the Upper Palaeolithic Hunterâ
    Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 39 (2015) 193–209 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Anthropological Archaeology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaa The demography of the Upper Palaeolithic hunter–gatherers of Southwestern France: A multi-proxy approach using archaeological data Jennifer C. French McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK article info abstract Article history: Demographic change is increasingly cited as an explanation for many of the patterns seen in the Received 15 July 2014 Palaeolithic archaeological record, following the assumption of a relationship between population size Revision received 2 April 2015 and material culture espoused by dual inheritance theory. However, the empirical testing of this relation- ship relies on the ability to extract information about past population patterns from the archaeological record. Using the extensive and well-studied record of the Upper Palaeolithic (39,500–11,500 cal BP) Keywords: hunter–gatherers of Southwestern France as a case-study, this paper compares the evidence for changes Archaeological demography in relative population size as seen in three popular archaeological proxies for demographic change (site Upper Palaeolithic counts, site sizes, and occupation intensity estimates). These proxies present conflicting results across the Southwestern France Hunter–gatherers sequence; a finding which is explored through the impact of taphonomic biases and past research agen- das. Numbers of sheltered sites and quantities of retouched stone tools are suggested to be the most reli- able demographic proxies. The problem of equifinality of interpretation in archaeological proxies for demography is examined for the Aurignacian and Gravettian periods in the region, with changes in lithic raw material, faunal acquisition strategies, and hunter–gatherer mobility all potentially contributing to the patterns documented.
    [Show full text]
  • Archaeology, Demography and Life History Theory Together Can Help Us
    Archaeology, demography and life history theory together can help us explain past and present population patterns Stephen Shennan and Rebecca Sear Published in ‘‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography’ issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0711 Abstract Population matters. Demography is both a cause and a consequence of human behaviour in other important domains, such as subsistence, cooperation, politics and culture. Demographers interested in contemporary and recent historical populations have rich data at their fingertips; the importance of demography means many interested parties have gathered demographic data, much of which is now readily available for all to explore. Those interested in the demography of the distant past are not so fortunate, given the lack of written records. Nevertheless, the emergence in recent years of a new interest in the demography of ancient populations has seen the development of a range of new methods for piecing together archaeological, skeletal and DNA evidence to reconstruct past population patterns. These efforts have found evidence in support of the view that the relatively low long-term population growth rates of prehistoric human populations, albeit ultimately conditioned by carrying capacities, may have been due to ‘boom-bust’ cycles at the regional level; rapid population growth, followed by population decline. In fact, this archaeological research may have come to the same conclusion as some contemporary demographers: that demography can be remarkably hard to predict, at least in the short term. It also fits with evidence from biology that primates, and particularly humans, may be adapted to environmental variability, leading to associated demographic stochasticity.
    [Show full text]
  • Demography and the Palaeolithic Archaeological Record
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Apollo Demography and the Palaeolithic archaeological record Jennifer C. French McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK Email: [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)1223 338256 Abstract Demographic change has recently re-emerged as a key explanation for socio-cultural changes documented in the prehistoric archaeological record. While the majority of studies of Pleistocene demography have been conducted by geneticists, the archaeological records of the Palaeolithic should not be ignored as a source of data on past population trends. This paper forms both a comprehensive synthesis and the first critical review of current archaeological research into Palaeolithic demography. Within prevailing archaeological frameworks of dual inheritance theory and human behavioural ecology, I review the ways in which demographic change has been used as an explanatory concept within Palaeolithic archaeology. I identify and discuss three main research areas which have benefitted from a demographic approach to socio-cultural change; 1) technological stasis in the Lower Palaeolithic; 2) the Neanderthal-Homo sapiens transition in Europe, and; 3) the emergence of behavioural modernity. I then address the ways in which palaeodemographic methods have been applied to Palaeolithic data-sets, considering both general methodological concerns and the challenges specific to this time period. Finally, I discuss the ability of ethnographic analogy to aid research into Palaeolithic demography. Key words: Demography, Palaeolithic, hunter-gatherers, behavioural ecology, cultural evolution Introduction “Un des problèmes les plus irritants de la préhistoire paléolithique est celui qui est lié aux factuers démographiques” (Bordes et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Calibrated 14C Dates As Population Proxies Felix Riede University College London, [email protected]
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Commons@Wayne State University Human Biology Volume 81 Issue 2 Special Issue on Demography and Cultural Article 11 Macroevolution 2009 Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory: Using Calibrated 14C Dates as Population Proxies Felix Riede University College London, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol Recommended Citation Riede, Felix (2009) "Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory: Using Calibrated 14C Dates as Population Proxies," Human Biology: Vol. 81: Iss. 2-3, Article 11. Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol81/iss2/11 Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory: Using Calibrated 14C Dates as Population Proxies Abstract Although difficult to estimate for prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations, demographic variables—population size, density, and the connectedness of demes—are critical for a better understanding of the processes of material culture change, especially in deep prehistory. Demography is the middle-range link between climatic changes and both biological and cultural evolutionary trajectories of human populations. Much of human material culture functions as a buffer against climatic changes, and the study of prehistoric population dynamics, estimated through changing frequencies of calibrated radiocarbon dates, therefore affords insights into how effectively such buffers operated and when they failed. In reviewing a number of case studies (Mesolithic Ireland, the origin of the Bromme culture, and the earliest late glacial human recolonization of southern Scandinavia), I suggest that a greater awareness of demographic processes, and in particular of demographic declines, provides many fresh insights into what structured the archaeological record.
    [Show full text]