R Haas
Biographic Data
| ID | 32595 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Haas |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Haas |
| SIGNATURE | HAAS R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Davis |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7742-2127 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 226 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Man the Hunter or man the hunter? Terminological confusion, gendered hunting, and gender bias
Hunting to herding on the Andean Altiplano
The Effect of Baby Wearing on Atlatl Performance
This analysis hypothesizes that baby wearing limits the performance capabilities of atlatl technology. If so, such hindrance would have disproportionately affected child caregivers who tend to be breastfeeding females and thus could have contributed to sexual division of subsistence labor among the many forager societies of the past that used baby-wearing and atlatl technologies. Contrary to expectation, experimental atlatl trials including a tot…
A Cold Habitat
How and why early hunter–gatherers expanded into the challenging environments of the Tibetan Plateau during the Pleistocene remain largely unexplained. The discovery of the archaeological site of Nwya Devu, characterized by lithic blade production, brings new evidence of human expansion to high elevations ca. 40–30 ka. The blade assemblage currently lacks technological antecedents in East Asia. During Marine Isotope Stage 3, the surrounding lowla…
Did archery technology precipitate complexity in the Titicaca Basin? A metric analysis of projectile points, 11–1 ka
The extent to which archery technology affected social organization in the Andes region of South America remains understudied. To identify the timing and consequences of archery technology in the Lake Titicaca Basin, this analysis examines metric data from 1179 projectile points from the region, 11–1.0 cal. ka. We find that the greatest decrease in projectile point size occurred across the Late/Terminal Archaic and Formative/Tiwanaku period bound…
A macroarchaeological view of mobility
Climate change intensified violence in the south-central Andean highlands from 1.5 to 0.5 ka
The archaeology of the pre-contact Andes provides an ideal study of human responses to climate change given the region's extreme climatic variability, excellent archaeological preservation, and robust paleoclimate records. We evaluate the effects of climate change on the frequency of interpersonal violence in the south-central Andes from ca. 1.5–0.5 ka (AD 470–1540) by comparing incidents of skeletal trauma observed among 2753 crania from 58 site…
Early Settlement in the High Andes
The Andean highlands of western South America spans 7,000 km from the equator to Patagonia and reaches altitudes of 7,000 m. Extreme cold, hypoxia, and low bioproductivity impose a distinct set of challenges to human survival and reproduction. This adaptive setting has inspired considerable archaeological and genetic research, which seeks to define the timing and nature of the adaptive process. Current evidence establishes that Paleoindian popula…
Iridescent Beetle Adornments Suggest Incipient Status Competition among the Earliest Horticulturalists in Bears Ears National Monument
Anthropological research has long theorized that emergent food-producing economies catalyzed high levels of inequality in human societies, as evident in the earliest use of jewelry made from gold, copper, and other precious minerals among early agricultural populations. Although the US Southwest appears to have been an exception, we report the discovery of two Basketmaker II period necklaces constructed of green iridescent scarab beetle femora, w…
Why Did Projectile-Point Size Increase in the Andean Altiplano Archaic? An Experimental Atlatl Analysis
Archaic projectile points from the Andean Altiplano exhibit a curious trend of increasing size over time, in contrast to a well-documented size reduction throughout North America. Although a number of hypotheses exist to account for decreasing projectile-point size, there are currently no explicit explanations for increasing size. We consider several hypotheses and interrogate two techno-economic hypotheses. We posit that increasing point size co…
Estimating the frequency of coincidental spatial associations between Clovis artifacts and proboscidean remains in North America
The extent to which Clovis peoples hunted proboscideans is debated. Convention requires that for a proboscidean butchery site to be accepted, contemporaneous artifacts must be spatially associated with faunal remains, and there must be evidence of use of the remains. Fourteen sites in North America currently meet those criteria; at least 31 do not. While these are reasonable requirements for avoiding false positives, such an approach risks identi…
Amely deletion is not detected in systematically sampled reference populations
Diet, Mobility, Technology, and Lithics
Neolithization was a complex, protracted process of domestication, sedentarization, and technology change that occurred in various combinations in various times and places around the world. Understanding the causal relationships among those and other important human behaviors remains an analytical challenge. This study examines Neolithization through the lens of lithic artifact variation in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Drawing on previous lithi…
Female hunters of the early Americas
Sexual division of labor with females as gatherers and males as hunters is a major empirical regularity of hunter-gatherer ethnography, suggesting an ancestral behavioral pattern. We present an archeological discovery and meta-analysis that challenge the man-the-hunter hypothesis. Excavations at the Andean highland site of Wilamaya Patjxa reveal a 9000-year-old human burial (WMP6) associated with a hunting toolkit of stone projectile points and a…
Forager Mobility in Constructed Environments
As obligate tool users, humans habitually reconfigure resource distributions on landscapes. Such resource restructuring would have played a nontrivial role in shaping hunter-gatherer mobility decisions and emergent land-use patterns. This paper presents a model of hunter-gatherer mobility in which the habitual deposition of material resources at places on landscapes biases the future mobility decisions of energy-optimizing foragers. Thus foragers…
Dukha Mobility in a Constructed Environment
Diverse theoretical perspectives suggest that place plays an important role in human behavior. One recent perspective proposes that habitual and recursive use of places among humans may be an emergent property of obligate tool use by our species. In this view, the costs of tool use are reduced by preferential occupation of previously occupied places where cultural materials have been discarded. Here we use the model to generate five predictions f…
Occupancy and the Use of Household Space Among the Dukha
Archaeologists commonly encounter the occupation surfaces of ephemeral prehistoric houses. Within those spaces, artifacts can exhibit considerable spatial structure raising the question of what that structure can tell us about human behavior. We explore a simple site-formation model in which household occupancy, defined here as the average number of individuals who simultaneously occupy a house, positively predicts artifact dispersion. We confron…
Spatiotemporal dynamics of prehistoric human population growth
Sex estimation using sexually dimorphic amelogenin protein fragments in human enamel
Dental evidence for wild tuber processing among Titicaca Basin foragers 7000 ybp
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this work is to characterize dental wear in a skeletal sample dating to the Middle/Late Archaic period transition (8,000-6,700 cal. B.P.) from the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru to better define subsistence behaviors of foragers prior to incipient sedentism and food production. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The dental sample consists of 251 teeth from 11 individuals recovered from the site of Soro Mik'aya Patjxa (SMP), the earlie…
Hunter-gatherers on the eve of agriculture
Multiscalar Perspectives on Social Networks in the Late Prehispanic Southwest
Analyzing historical trajectories of social interactions at varying scales can lead to complementary interpretations of relationships among archaeological settlements. We use social network analysis combined with geographic information systems at three spatial scales over time in the western U.S. Southwest to show how the same social processes affected network dynamics at each scale. The period we address, A.D. 1200-1450, was characterized by mig…
Transformation of social networks in the late pre-Hispanic US Southwest
The late pre-Hispanic period in the US Southwest (A.D. 1200–1450) was characterized by large-scale demographic changes, including long-distance migration and population aggregation. To reconstruct how these processes reshaped social networks, we compiled a comprehensive artifact database from major sites dating to this interval in the western Southwest. We combine social network analysis with geographic information systems approaches to reconstru…
Brokerage and Social Capital in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest
In social network analysis, brokerage refers to the processes through which individuals or larger groups mediate interactions between actors that would otherwise not be directly connected. Brokers occupy key intermediate positions that have alternately been interpreted as sources of social capital or potential disadvantages. Recent empirical studies suggest that the relationship between brokerage and rewards or risks varies considerably depending…
A method for chronological apportioning of ceramic assemblages
Brokerage and Social Capital in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest
In social network analysis, brokerage refers to the processes through which individuals or larger groups mediate interactions between actors that would otherwise not be directly connected. Brokers occupy key intermediate positions that have alternately been interpreted as sources of social capital or potential disadvantages. Recent empirical studies suggest that the relationship between brokerage and rewards or risks varies considerably depending…
Multiscalar Perspectives on Social Networks in the Late Prehispanic Southwest
Analyzing historical trajectories of social interactions at varying scales can lead to complementary interpretations of relationships among archaeological settlements. We use social network analysis combined with geographic information systems at three spatial scales over time in the western U.S. Southwest to show how the same social processes affected network dynamics at each scale. The period we address, A.D. 1200-1450, was characterized by mig…
Forager Mobility in Constructed Environments
As obligate tool users, humans habitually reconfigure resource distributions on landscapes. Such resource restructuring would have played a nontrivial role in shaping hunter-gatherer mobility decisions and emergent land-use patterns. This paper presents a model of hunter-gatherer mobility in which the habitual deposition of material resources at places on landscapes biases the future mobility decisions of energy-optimizing foragers. Thus foragers…
Sex estimation using sexually dimorphic amelogenin protein fragments in human enamel
Spatiotemporal dynamics of prehistoric human population growth
A method for chronological apportioning of ceramic assemblages
Hunter-gatherers on the eve of agriculture
Why Did Projectile-Point Size Increase in the Andean Altiplano Archaic? An Experimental Atlatl Analysis
Archaic projectile points from the Andean Altiplano exhibit a curious trend of increasing size over time, in contrast to a well-documented size reduction throughout North America. Although a number of hypotheses exist to account for decreasing projectile-point size, there are currently no explicit explanations for increasing size. We consider several hypotheses and interrogate two techno-economic hypotheses. We posit that increasing point size co…
Dukha Mobility in a Constructed Environment
Diverse theoretical perspectives suggest that place plays an important role in human behavior. One recent perspective proposes that habitual and recursive use of places among humans may be an emergent property of obligate tool use by our species. In this view, the costs of tool use are reduced by preferential occupation of previously occupied places where cultural materials have been discarded. Here we use the model to generate five predictions f…
Amely deletion is not detected in systematically sampled reference populations
Diet, Mobility, Technology, and Lithics
Neolithization was a complex, protracted process of domestication, sedentarization, and technology change that occurred in various combinations in various times and places around the world. Understanding the causal relationships among those and other important human behaviors remains an analytical challenge. This study examines Neolithization through the lens of lithic artifact variation in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Drawing on previous lithi…
The Social Implications of Basketmaker Ii Cordage Design Distribution
Exceptionally preserved cordage artifacts from Basketmaker II sites offer a rare insight into social processes that persisted during the 1500-year beginnings of agricultural lifeways and village sedentism on the Colorado Plateau. Through an analysis of cordage design, I examine the process of knowledge sharing among Basketmaker II peoples. I propose that certain technical choices in raw-material selection and fiber-twisting methods result from an…
Dental evidence for wild tuber processing among Titicaca Basin foragers 7000 ybp
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this work is to characterize dental wear in a skeletal sample dating to the Middle/Late Archaic period transition (8,000-6,700 cal. B.P.) from the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru to better define subsistence behaviors of foragers prior to incipient sedentism and food production. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The dental sample consists of 251 teeth from 11 individuals recovered from the site of Soro Mik'aya Patjxa (SMP), the earlie…
Hunting to herding on the Andean Altiplano
The Social Implications of Basketmaker Ii Cordage Design Distribution
Exceptionally preserved cordage artifacts from Basketmaker II sites offer a rare insight into social processes that persisted during the 1500-year beginnings of agricultural lifeways and village sedentism on the Colorado Plateau. Through an analysis of cordage design, I examine the process of knowledge sharing among Basketmaker II peoples. I propose that certain technical choices in raw-material selection and fiber-twisting methods result from an…
A method for chronological apportioning of ceramic assemblages
Transformation of social networks in the late pre-Hispanic US Southwest
The late pre-Hispanic period in the US Southwest (A.D. 1200–1450) was characterized by large-scale demographic changes, including long-distance migration and population aggregation. To reconstruct how these processes reshaped social networks, we compiled a comprehensive artifact database from major sites dating to this interval in the western Southwest. We combine social network analysis with geographic information systems approaches to reconstru…
Brokerage and Social Capital in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest
In social network analysis, brokerage refers to the processes through which individuals or larger groups mediate interactions between actors that would otherwise not be directly connected. Brokers occupy key intermediate positions that have alternately been interpreted as sources of social capital or potential disadvantages. Recent empirical studies suggest that the relationship between brokerage and rewards or risks varies considerably depending…
Hunter-gatherers on the eve of agriculture
Multiscalar Perspectives on Social Networks in the Late Prehispanic Southwest
Analyzing historical trajectories of social interactions at varying scales can lead to complementary interpretations of relationships among archaeological settlements. We use social network analysis combined with geographic information systems at three spatial scales over time in the western U.S. Southwest to show how the same social processes affected network dynamics at each scale. The period we address, A.D. 1200-1450, was characterized by mig…
Dental evidence for wild tuber processing among Titicaca Basin foragers 7000 ybp
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this work is to characterize dental wear in a skeletal sample dating to the Middle/Late Archaic period transition (8,000-6,700 cal. B.P.) from the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru to better define subsistence behaviors of foragers prior to incipient sedentism and food production. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The dental sample consists of 251 teeth from 11 individuals recovered from the site of Soro Mik'aya Patjxa (SMP), the earlie…
Occupancy and the Use of Household Space Among the Dukha
Archaeologists commonly encounter the occupation surfaces of ephemeral prehistoric houses. Within those spaces, artifacts can exhibit considerable spatial structure raising the question of what that structure can tell us about human behavior. We explore a simple site-formation model in which household occupancy, defined here as the average number of individuals who simultaneously occupy a house, positively predicts artifact dispersion. We confron…
Spatiotemporal dynamics of prehistoric human population growth
Sex estimation using sexually dimorphic amelogenin protein fragments in human enamel
Forager Mobility in Constructed Environments
As obligate tool users, humans habitually reconfigure resource distributions on landscapes. Such resource restructuring would have played a nontrivial role in shaping hunter-gatherer mobility decisions and emergent land-use patterns. This paper presents a model of hunter-gatherer mobility in which the habitual deposition of material resources at places on landscapes biases the future mobility decisions of energy-optimizing foragers. Thus foragers…
Dukha Mobility in a Constructed Environment
Diverse theoretical perspectives suggest that place plays an important role in human behavior. One recent perspective proposes that habitual and recursive use of places among humans may be an emergent property of obligate tool use by our species. In this view, the costs of tool use are reduced by preferential occupation of previously occupied places where cultural materials have been discarded. Here we use the model to generate five predictions f…
Female hunters of the early Americas
Sexual division of labor with females as gatherers and males as hunters is a major empirical regularity of hunter-gatherer ethnography, suggesting an ancestral behavioral pattern. We present an archeological discovery and meta-analysis that challenge the man-the-hunter hypothesis. Excavations at the Andean highland site of Wilamaya Patjxa reveal a 9000-year-old human burial (WMP6) associated with a hunting toolkit of stone projectile points and a…
Estimating the frequency of coincidental spatial associations between Clovis artifacts and proboscidean remains in North America
The extent to which Clovis peoples hunted proboscideans is debated. Convention requires that for a proboscidean butchery site to be accepted, contemporaneous artifacts must be spatially associated with faunal remains, and there must be evidence of use of the remains. Fourteen sites in North America currently meet those criteria; at least 31 do not. While these are reasonable requirements for avoiding false positives, such an approach risks identi…
Amely deletion is not detected in systematically sampled reference populations
Diet, Mobility, Technology, and Lithics
Neolithization was a complex, protracted process of domestication, sedentarization, and technology change that occurred in various combinations in various times and places around the world. Understanding the causal relationships among those and other important human behaviors remains an analytical challenge. This study examines Neolithization through the lens of lithic artifact variation in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Drawing on previous lithi…
Why Did Projectile-Point Size Increase in the Andean Altiplano Archaic? An Experimental Atlatl Analysis
Archaic projectile points from the Andean Altiplano exhibit a curious trend of increasing size over time, in contrast to a well-documented size reduction throughout North America. Although a number of hypotheses exist to account for decreasing projectile-point size, there are currently no explicit explanations for increasing size. We consider several hypotheses and interrogate two techno-economic hypotheses. We posit that increasing point size co…
Climate change intensified violence in the south-central Andean highlands from 1.5 to 0.5 ka
The archaeology of the pre-contact Andes provides an ideal study of human responses to climate change given the region's extreme climatic variability, excellent archaeological preservation, and robust paleoclimate records. We evaluate the effects of climate change on the frequency of interpersonal violence in the south-central Andes from ca. 1.5–0.5 ka (AD 470–1540) by comparing incidents of skeletal trauma observed among 2753 crania from 58 site…
Early Settlement in the High Andes
The Andean highlands of western South America spans 7,000 km from the equator to Patagonia and reaches altitudes of 7,000 m. Extreme cold, hypoxia, and low bioproductivity impose a distinct set of challenges to human survival and reproduction. This adaptive setting has inspired considerable archaeological and genetic research, which seeks to define the timing and nature of the adaptive process. Current evidence establishes that Paleoindian popula…
Iridescent Beetle Adornments Suggest Incipient Status Competition among the Earliest Horticulturalists in Bears Ears National Monument
Anthropological research has long theorized that emergent food-producing economies catalyzed high levels of inequality in human societies, as evident in the earliest use of jewelry made from gold, copper, and other precious minerals among early agricultural populations. Although the US Southwest appears to have been an exception, we report the discovery of two Basketmaker II period necklaces constructed of green iridescent scarab beetle femora, w…
The Effect of Baby Wearing on Atlatl Performance
This analysis hypothesizes that baby wearing limits the performance capabilities of atlatl technology. If so, such hindrance would have disproportionately affected child caregivers who tend to be breastfeeding females and thus could have contributed to sexual division of subsistence labor among the many forager societies of the past that used baby-wearing and atlatl technologies. Contrary to expectation, experimental atlatl trials including a tot…
A Cold Habitat
How and why early hunter–gatherers expanded into the challenging environments of the Tibetan Plateau during the Pleistocene remain largely unexplained. The discovery of the archaeological site of Nwya Devu, characterized by lithic blade production, brings new evidence of human expansion to high elevations ca. 40–30 ka. The blade assemblage currently lacks technological antecedents in East Asia. During Marine Isotope Stage 3, the surrounding lowla…
Did archery technology precipitate complexity in the Titicaca Basin? A metric analysis of projectile points, 11–1 ka
The extent to which archery technology affected social organization in the Andes region of South America remains understudied. To identify the timing and consequences of archery technology in the Lake Titicaca Basin, this analysis examines metric data from 1179 projectile points from the region, 11–1.0 cal. ka. We find that the greatest decrease in projectile point size occurred across the Late/Terminal Archaic and Formative/Tiwanaku period bound…
A macroarchaeological view of mobility
Hunting to herding on the Andean Altiplano
Geography (20 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (19 works) · Archaeology (18 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 works) · Biology (14 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Geology (9 works) · Ecology (8 works) · Structural basin (7 works) · Paleontology (6 works)