James F. O'Connell

Hadza Women's Time Allocation, Offspring Provisioning, and the Evolution of Long Postmenopausal Life Spans

Extended provisioning of offspring and long postmenopausal life spans are characteristic of all modern humans but no other primates. These traits may have evolved in tandem. Analysis of relationships between womens time allocation and childrens nutritional welfare among the Hadza of northern Tanzania yields results consistent with this proposition. Implications for current thought about the evolution of hominid food sharing, life history, and social organization are discussed.

Hadza Hunting, Butchering, and Bone Transport and Their Archaeological Implications

A study of Hadza hunting and scavenging practices, patterns of medium/large mammal carcass dismemberment and transport from kill sites to base camps, and subsequent processing and disposal of bones reveals archaeological bone assemblage formation processes among these hunter-gatherers in northern Tanzania. Body part transport patterns are highly variable, but they probably are understandable in terms of the goal of maximizing net nutritional benefit relative to the costs of field processing and transport. The Hadza data have implications for some widely held views about patterns of bone transport among hunters, for particular reconstructions of past human or hominid behavior based on those views, for the problem of distinguishing hunting versus scavenging as contributors to assemblage composition, and for current thought about the suitability of modern hunters as a source of inference about the prehistoric past.

Reanalysis of large mammal body part transport among the Hadza

Abstract Data on 54 cases of large mammal body part transport among the Hadza are reanalysed. Results are consistent with those previously reported. Within species, parts are ranked on a uni-dimensional scale for transport: high ranked parts are more likely to be moved from kill sites to base camps, low ranked parts less likely. For most species in the sample, rank order is inconsistent with that described in the widely cited White/Perkins and Daly model. Archaeological interpretations based on this aspect of the model are therefore suspect. The number of parts moved from Hadza kills varies with transport costs, measured by carcass size and/or kill site-base camp distance. This result fits predictions from the White/Perkins and Daly model. Further application of these results to archaeological problems requires that the Hadza pattern be explained in general terms. The potential relevance of a transport model recently formulated by Metcalfe is noted.

Hunting and nuclear families: some lessons from the Hadza about men's work

Hadza hunter-gatherers display economic and social features usually assumed to indicate the dependence of wives and children on provisioning husbands and fathers. The wives and children of better Hadza hunters have been found to be better-nourished, consistent with the assumption that men hunt to provision their families. Yet, as is common among foragers, the Hadza share meat widely. Analyses of meat-sharing data confirm that little of the meat from large prey went to the hunters own household. These analyses also show that neither a mans hunting success nor the time he spent hunting made any difference in how much meat his family got from the kills of others. Here we address questions posed by this set of observations. What explains the better nutrition of the children of better hunters if they did not get differential rations of meat? If better hunters got no more meat for their effort and poorer hunters were not punished with less, what incentive could account for the continuing disproportionate contribution that some men made to the groups nutrition? If women were not dependent on their husbands hunting success for meat, an obvious incentive for women to marry hunters disappears. We briefly consider the implications of these patterns for the evolution of marriage and nuclear families.

Ethnoarchaeology needs a general theory of behavior

Ethnoarchaeology is the study of relationships between human behavior and its material consequences in the present. Practitioners hope to establish consistent links between the two that can be used to interpret archaeological evidence of human behavior in the past. Much of this work is descriptive: analysts seldom attempt to explain variation in the behavior they observe, instead simply documenting its archaeological implications. This limits the utility of their results. At best, they can only identify the past distribution of ethnographically known behavior. Evidence of anything else is uninterpretable; the behavioral variability it reflects inexplicable. This problem can be resolved only by linking ethnoarchaeology with a general theory of behavior. Neo-Darwinian behavioral ecology may provide the necessary framework. Recent ethnoarchaeological work on site structure and faunal remains, especially as applied in research on the Paleolithic, illustrates both the problem and the appeal of the proposed solution.

Patterns in the distribution, site structure and assemblage composition of Hadza kill-butchering sites

Abstract Large mammal kill sites created by Hadza hunter-gatherers are described and analysed. Three important observations result. First, Hadza kill sites are likely to contain disproportionate numbers of very large-bodied prey (live weight > 200 kg). Smaller animals are taken far more often, but will be underrepresented in kill site assemblages because of Hadza carcass transport practices and the actions of secondary consumers. Second, Hadza kill sites sometimes display marked, surprisingly large scale patterns in the distribution of associated bone debris and features. Third, such patterns partly resemble those created by non-human carnivores. Implications of these observations for current approaches to the excavation and interpretation of prehistoric kill sites are discussed.

When did humans first arrive in greater Australia and why is it important to know

Until recently, archeologists have generally agreed that modern humans arrived on Australia and its continental islands, New Guinea and Tasmania (collectively, Greater Australia), about 35,000 to 40,000 years ago,1 a time range that is consistent with evidence of their first appearance elsewhere in the Old World well outside Africa.2,3 Over the past decade, however, this consensus has been eroded, first by dates of 50,000 to 60,000 years from two sites in Arnhem Land4,5 and then, dramatically, by dates of 116,000 to 176,000 years from a third site on the eastern margin of the nearby Kimberley region.6 If accurate, these dates require significant changes in current ideas, not just about the initial colonization of Australia, but about the entire chronology of human evolution in the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene. Either fully modern humans were present well outside Africa at a surprisingly early date or the behavioral capabilities long thought to be uniquely theirs were also associated, at least to some degree, with other hominids. Deciding whether these dates are accurate and associated with definite evidence of human activity thus becomes critically important. We think there are good reasons to be skeptical, not only on the basis of the dates and their alleged associations, but because of their mismatch with established sequences, both in Greater Australia and elsewhere. Until these issues are resolved, adjusting the broader global picture to accommodate these early dates is premature.

Forum The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe: Modelling the colonisation of Sahui

Abstract Elsewhere we have developed a speculative model of the early human colonisation of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea). Here we elaborate it, using theory from behavioural ecology, and data from palaeoclimatology and modern hunter-gatherer ethnography. We argue that colonisers focused mainly on coastal ecotones while crossing Wallacea, but spread more widely across favourable habitats after landing on Sahul. Movement was archaeologically instantaneous, driven primarily by serial depletion of high-ranked prey. Human populations subsequently remained far smaller than sometimes imagined, probably because of difficult climatic and environmental conditions. Archaeological data are generally consistent with these expectations. These findings challenge the frequent assertion that human colonisation alone led to significant changes in Sahul ecology, and may help explain the simplicity of its Pleistocene lithic technology.

An Alyawara Day: The Stone Quarry

The activities of the ethnographers and three Alyawara men during the course of a trip to a stone quarry in Central Australia are described. The excavation, shaping, and reduction of cores for the production of standardized flakes and blades was observed on the trip. These observations are then used as the basis for a short discussion regarding the current literature treating lithic techniques. Some contemporary approaches or interpretations may be in need of modification as we become increasingly aware of the variability in technique that may well stand behind the manufactured products we regularly analyze and study.

Hunting and Nuclear Families

Hadza hunter-gatherers display economic and social features usually assumed to indicate the dependence of wives and children on provisioning husbands and fathers. The wives and children of better Hadza hunters have been found to be better-nourished, consistent with the assumption that men hunt to provision their families. Yet, as is common among foragers, the Hadza share meat widely. Analyses of meat-sharing data confirm that little of the meat from large prey went to the hunters own household. These analyses also show that neither a mans hunting success nor the time he spent hunting made any difference in how much meat his family got from the kills of others. Here we address questions posed by this set of observations. What explains the better nutrition of the children of better hunters if they did not get differential rations of meat? If better hunters got no more meat for their effort and poorer hunters were not punished with less, what incentive could account for the continuing disproportionate contribution that some men made to the groups nutrition? If women were not dependent on their husbands hunting success for meat, an obvious incentive for women to marry hunters disappears. We briefly consider the implications of these patterns for the evolution of marriage and nuclear families.