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Prestige and Prejudice: The Role of Long Distance Big Game Hunting as an Optimal Foraging Decision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Deanna N. Grimstead
Deanna N. Grimstead*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85711 (dng@email.arizona.edu)
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Abstract

Signaling theory has much to offer anthropology and archaeology, which is in part why there is an increasing number of applications and healthy debates surrounding how best to apply it. One of those debates surrounds whether big game hunting is a costly signal or simply an aspect of efficient foraging. Grimstead (2010) contributed to this debate by showing that long-distance big-game hunting (greater than 100 km roundtrip) produces higher caloric return rates than does local small-game hunting, despite increased costs of travel and transport for the former. Whittaker and Carpenter (this issue) present a model that also suggests long-distance big-game hunting produces higher economic returns than local foraging but only up to about 50 km. This paper provides further details on the tenets of the Grimstead (2010) paper in response to criticisms by Whittaker and Carpenter (this issue), and then uses a previously published central place foraging model (Cannon 2003) to show that another model also shows long-distance big-game hunting over a distance greater than 100 kilometers roundtrip produces higher returns than local foraging.

La teoría de Señalización tiene mucho que ofrecerle a las disciplinas de antropología y arqueología, y es en parte la razón qué hay varias aplicaciones y debates sanos en como mejor aplicarla. Uno de los debates rodea si la caza mayor es una señal costosa, o si simplemente es un aspecto de la eficiencia de forrajeo. Grimstead (2010) contribuyó a este debate, mostrando que la caza mayor de larga distancia (más de 100 km, ida y vuelta) produce mayores tasas de rendimientos calóricos que los de caza menor locales, a pesar de aumento de costos de viaje y transporte para el primero. Whittaker y Carpenter (this issue) presentan un modelo que también sugiere que la caza mayor a larga distancia produce mayores rendimientos económicos que los de alimentaciones locales, pero sólo hasta unos 50 km. Este documento proporciona más detalles sobre los principios del documento Grimstead (2010) en respuesta a las críticas por Whittaker y Carpenter (this issue), y luego utiliza un modelo previamente publicado de lugar central de forrajeo (Cannon 2003) para demostrar que también otro modelo muestra que la caza mayor de larga distancia más de 100 kilómetros de viaje redondo produce mayores beneficios que los locales de alimentación.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 168 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2012

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