Decomposing Habitat Suitability Across the Forager to Farmer Transition

Bibliographic Data

ID9334282
AuthorsKenneth Blake Vernon (0000-0003-0098-5092, University of Utah, corresponding author), Peter M Yaworsky (0000-0002-4620-9569, University of Utah), Jerry D Spangler (0000-0002-0316-310X, Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, Ogden, UT, USA), Scott Brewer (0000-0002-6810-1911, University of Utah), B F Codding (0000-0001-7977-8568, University of Utah)
Year2020
Volume27
Issue4
Pages420-433
Publication date2020-04-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4103 • E-ISSN: 1749-6314
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14614103.2020.1746880
OpenAlexW3018618349
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited63

How might subsistence strategies structure the costs and benefits of habitat selection and, therefore, drive settlement patterning? We explore this question within an Ideal Distribution framework, arguing that (i) a habitat can be decomposed into its environmental covariates, (ii) their relative contributions to suitability can vary as a function of subsistence strategy, and (iii) the resulting differences will in turn lead to different population distributions across habitats. To evaluate these claims, we apply a Poisson point-process modelling approach known as maximum entropy (MaxEnt) to Archaic hunter-gatherer and Formative maize-farmer sites within the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Our results show that environmental covariates vary in their importance for each strategy and that the strategies themselves vary in their land use and habitat distribution, with Archaic foragers being widely distributed across space, Formative farmers more densely packed into areas indicative of higher maize productivity. The approach itself also has wide application to other subsistence strategies, including horticulture and pastoralism, across a range of environmental conditions

Agriculture · Agroforestry · Biology · Distribution (mathematics · Geography · Habitat · Ideal free distribution · Livestock · Pastoralism · Population · Range (aeronautics · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Engineering · Mathematics · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Ecology · Forestry

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