Demographic conditions necessary to colonize new spaces

The case for early human dispersal in the Americas

Bibliographic Data

ID3918756
AuthorsJosé Luis Lanata (0000-0002-3606-4239, Universidad de Buenos Aires), Luis Martino (National Technological University), Ana Osella (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Arleen García-Herbst, Arleen E Garcia-Herbst (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Year2008
Volume40
Issue4
Pages520-537
Publication date2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438240802452890
OpenAlexW1979598326
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited41

During the last decade or so, several authors have discussed human dispersal using mathematical simulations in the Americas (Anderson and Gillam 2000 Anderson, D. and Gillam, J. 2000. Paleoindian colonization of the Americas: implications from an examination of physiography, demography, and artifact distribution. American Antiquity, 65: 43–66. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Aoki 1993 Aoki, K. 1993. Modelling the dispersal of the first Americans through an inhospitable ice-free corridor. Anthropological Science, 101: 79–89. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Steele 2002 Steele, J. 2002. "Evolution, ecology, and human adaptability". In Tendencias en Arqueología Evolutiva, Edited by: Martínez, G. and Lanata, J. 207–220. Olavarría: UNC. [Google Scholar]; Steele et al. 1995 Steele, J., Sluckin, T., Denholm, D. and Gamble, C. 1995. Simulating the hunter-gatherer colonization of the Americas. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia, 28: 223–227. [Google Scholar], 1998 Steele, J., Adams, J. and Sluckin, T. 1998. Modelling Paleoindian dispersals. World Archaeology, 30: 286–305. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Surovell 2000 Surovell, T. 2000. Early Paleoindian women, children, mobility and fertility. American Antiquity, 65: 493–508. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2003 Surovell, T. 2003. Simulating coastal migration in New World colonization. Current Anthropology, 44: 580–591. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), as well as other parts of the world (Gkiasta et al. 2003 Gkiasta, M., Russell, T., Shennan, S. and Steele, J. 2003. The Neolithic transition in Europe: the radiocarbon record revisited. Antiquity, 77: 45–62. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Hughes et al. 2007 Hughes, J., Haywood, A., Mithen, S., Sellwood, B. and Valdes, P. 2007. Investigating early hominin dispersal patterns: developing a framework for climate data integration. Journal of Human Evolution, 53: 465–474. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Mithen and Reed 2002 Mithen, S. and Reed, M. 2002. Stepping out: a computer simulation of hominid dispersal from Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 43: 433–462. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Pope and Terrell 2008 Pope, K. and Terrell, J. 2008. Environmental setting of human migrations in the circum-Pacific region. Journal of Biogeography, 35: 1–21. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Ray 2003 Ray, N. 2003. "Modélisation de la démographie des populations humaines préhistoriques à l'aide de données environnementales et génétiques". Doctoral dissertation, Département d'Anthropologie et d'Écologie. Université de Genéve, de Villars-Burquin [Google Scholar]; Young 2002 Young, D. 2002. A new space-time computer simulation method for human migration. American Anthropologist, 104: 138–158. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Young and Bettinger 1992 Young, D. and Bettinger, R. 1992. The Numic spread. American Antiquity, 57: 85–99. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1995 Young, D. and Bettinger, R. 1995. Simulating the global human expansion in the Late Pleistocene. Journal of Archaeological Science, 22: 89–92. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In this journal, Steele et al. (1998) presented a demographic model based on the notion of dispersal affected by environmental variability through time and space. We modified the mathematical formula to make the process stochastic. This allows the exploration of different demographic conditions under which humans could successfully colonize the Americas. The simulations demonstrate two human dispersal scenarios: 1) a single dispersal process with two major tempos or 2) two different dispersal processes, one from Beringia to the Isthmus of Panama and the other for South America

Biological dispersal · Biology · Geography · Population · Sociology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Ecology · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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