The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation

Koster, Jeremy; McElreath, Richard; Hill, Kim; Yu, Douglas; Shepard, Glenn; van Vliet, Nathalie; Gurven, Michael; Trumble, Benjamin; Bird, Rebecca Bliege; Bird, Douglas; Codding, Brian; Coad, Lauren; Pacheco-Cobos, Luis; Winterhalder, Bruce; Lupo, Karen; Schmitt, Dave; Sillitoe, Paul; Franzen, Margaret; Alvard, Michael; Venkataraman, Vivek; Kraft, Thomas; Endicott, Kirk; Beckerman, Stephen; Marks, Stuart A.; Headland, Thomas; Pangau-Adam, Margaretha; Siren, Anders; Kramer, Karen; Greaves, Russell; Reyes-García, Victoria; Guèze, Maximilien; Duda, Romain; Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro; Gallois, Sandrine; Napitupulu, Lucentezza; Ellen, Roy; Ziker, John; Nielsen, Martin R.; Ready, Elspeth; Healey, Christopher; Ross, Cody

Abstract

Human adaptation depends on the integration of slow life history, complex production skills, and extensive sociality. Refining and testing models of the evolution of human life history and cultural learning benefit from increasingly accurate measurement of knowledge, skills, and rates of production with age. We pursue this goal by inferring hunters’ increases and declines of skill from approximately 23,000 hunting records generated by more than 1800 individuals at 40 locations. The data reveal an average age of peak productivity between 30 and 35 years of age, although high skill is maintained throughout much of adulthood. In addition, there is substantial variation both among individuals and sites. Within study sites, variation among individuals depends more on heterogeneity in rates of decline than in rates of increase. This analysis sharpens questions about the coevolution of human life history and cultural adaptation.

Citation

Koster, J., McElreath, R., Hill, K., Yu, D., Shepard, G., van Vliet, N., Gurven, M., Trumble, B., Bird, R. B., Bird, D., Codding, B., Coad, L., Pacheco-Cobos, L., Winterhalder, B., Lupo, K., Schmitt, D., Sillitoe, P., Franzen, M., Alvard, M., Venkataraman, V., …Ross, C. (2020). The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation. Science Advances, 6(26), Article eaax9070. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax9070

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 17, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 24, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-06
• Deposit Date: Jul 15, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 15, 2020
• Journal: Science Advances
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 26
• Article Number: eaax9070
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax9070
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1266505