Product Information
This innovative volume is the first collective effort by archaeologists and ethnographers to use concepts and models from human behavioral ecology to explore one of the most consequential transitions in human history: the origins of agriculture. Carefully balancing theory and detailed empirical study, and drawing from a series of ethnographic and archaeological case studies from eleven locations?including North and South America, Mesoamerica, Europe, the Near East, Africa, and the Pacific?the contributors to this volume examine the transition from hunting and gathering to farming and herding using a broad set of analytical models and concepts. These include diet breadth, central place foraging, ideal free distribution, discounting, risk sensitivity, population ecology, and costly signaling. An introductory chapter both charts the basics of the theory and notes areas of rapid advance in our understanding of how human subsistence systems evolve. Two concluding chapters by senior archaeologists reflect on the potential for human behavioral ecology to explain domestication and the transition from foraging to farming.Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of California Press
ISBN-139780520246478
eBay Product ID (ePID)90484764
Product Key Features
Number of Pages408 Pages
Publication NameBehavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture
LanguageEnglish
SubjectBiology
Publication Year2006
TypeTextbook
Subject AreaNatural Science
AuthorBruce Winterhalder, Douglas J. Kennett
SeriesOrigins of Human Behavior and Culture
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height254 mm
Item Weight1089 g
Additional Product Features
EditorBruce Winterhalder, Douglas J. Kennett
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States