Mardu Foraging, Food Sharing, and Gender

Among Aboriginal people in Australia\u27s deserts, as among all humans, food acquisition is not simply about eating: practices related to what types of foods are acquired, who obtains the food, how food is treated and distributed, are infused with value other than simple nutrition. Often these practices are attached to gender roles. Traditional explanations have assumed that gender differences in foraging and food sharing are bound by a common goal of provisioning--that like a mini-economy of scale, a household will be better provisioned through gender specialization. But recent work among other people that hunt and gather suggests that under some circumstances critical aspects of gender differences in labor may arise from the ways in which different strategies of food acquisition and distribution meet different foraging goals, some of which can conflict with household provisioning. This is especially the case when the activity of acquiring food can provide public goods that are distributed widely, or when food contains symbolic value beyond its simple caloric content. This research proposes to quantitatively test the predictions of hypotheses that examine factors influencing food acquisition, sharing, and their link to gender differentiation among the Mardu of Western Australia. To what extent are different (sometimes conflicting) foraging goals influencing a sexual division of labor? To what extent are Mardu foraging decisions designed to more effectively provision themselves and their households, and to what extent are they influenced by the ways that different activities can honestly signal underlying qualities of the acquirer? How do changes in household composition, environmental dynamics, and social dynamics affect male and female foraging strategies? Answering these questions will involve quantitative measures of the economics of resource patch utilization, prey selection, food transfers, and Mardu camp composition and ecology. Delineating these and how they structure subsistence decisions will have broad relevance for our understanding of basic features of human family organization in small scale economies

Mardu Foraging, Food Sharing, and Gender

Among Aboriginal people in Australia\u27s deserts, as among all humans, food acquisition is not simply about eating: practices related to what types of foods are acquired, who obtains the food, how food is treated and distributed, are infused with value other than simple nutrition. Often these practices are attached to gender roles. Traditional explanations have assumed that gender differences in foraging and food sharing are bound by a common goal of provisioning--that like a mini-economy of scale, a household will be better provisioned through gender specialization. But recent work among other people that hunt and gather suggests that under some circumstances critical aspects of gender differences in labor may arise from the ways in which different strategies of food acquisition and distribution meet different foraging goals, some of which can conflict with household provisioning. This is especially the case when the activity of acquiring food can provide public goods that are distributed widely, or when food contains symbolic value beyond its simple caloric content. This research proposes to quantitatively test the predictions of hypotheses that examine factors influencing food acquisition, sharing, and their link to gender differentiation among the Mardu of Western Australia. To what extent are different (sometimes conflicting) foraging goals influencing a sexual division of labor? To what extent are Mardu foraging decisions designed to more effectively provision themselves and their households, and to what extent are they influenced by the ways that different activities can honestly signal underlying qualities of the acquirer? How do changes in household composition, environmental dynamics, and social dynamics affect male and female foraging strategies? Answering these questions will involve quantitative measures of the economics of resource patch utilization, prey selection, food transfers, and Mardu camp composition and ecology. Delineating these and how they structure subsistence decisions will have broad relevance for our understanding of basic features of human family organization in small scale economies

Behavioral ecology and the future of archaeological science

pre-printThe future of archaeological science relies as much (if not more) on theoretical as on methodological developments. As with anything in biology, explaining past human behavior will require the application of evolutionary theory. As with anything in archaeology, theory is useless without clear ties to a material record. Human behavioral ecology (HBE) has become one of the central theoretical frameworks in archaeological science by providing a broad conceptual toolkit for linking principles of natural selection to operational hypotheses about variability in behavior and its material consequences. Here we review the general approach and outline cases where applying HBE models can contribute to key research issues in archaeology. These examples illustrate how foundational applications of HBE are being built upon to explain complex and diverse phenomena ranging from the origins of agriculture to the emergence of institutionalized inequality. With each case, we outline avenues where this research strategy can advance archaeological science into the future

A land of work: foraging behavior and ecology

book chapterWork is a core theme in many of the major issues and debates in California archaeology. Work is central in understanding why the first Californians entered the region (e.g., Erlandson, this volume): how thousands of years of work following colonization resulted in the overexploitation of particular resources (e.g., Broughton 1994), the economic intensification of work effort (e.g., Basgall 1987), shifts in the patterns of population growth (e.g., Hull, this volume), changes in the currencies that drive work (e.g., Hildebrandt and McGuire, this volume), and the emergence of social hierarchies in politically complex societies (e.g., Arnold 1992, 1993). All of these were punctuated by environmental events which alter the very foundations of work (e.g., Jones and Schwitalla, this volume)

Husimi Maps in Lattices

We build upon previous work that used coherent states as a measurement of the local phase space and extended the flux operator by adapting the Husimi projection to produce a vector field called the Husimi map. In this article, we extend its definition from continuous systems to lattices. This requires making several adjustments to incorporate effects such as group velocity and multiple bands. Several phenomena which uniquely occur in lattice systems, like group-velocity warping and internal Bragg diffraction, are explained and demonstrated using Husimi maps. We also show that scattering points between bands and valleys can be identified in the divergence of the Husimi map

Using AVIRIS In The NASA BAA Project To Evaluate The Impact Of Natural Acid Drainage On Colorado Watersheds

The Colorado Geological Survey and the co-authors of this paper were awarded one of 15 NASA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) grants in 2001. The project focuses on the use of hyperspectral remote sensing to map acid-generating minerals that affect water quality within a watershed, and to identify the relative contributions of natural and anthropogenic sources to that drainage. A further objective is to define the most cost-effective remote sensing instrument configuration for this application

Effects of a nanoscopic filler on the structure and dynamics of a simulated polymer melt and the relationship to ultra-thin films

We perform molecular dynamics simulations of an idealized polymer melt surrounding a nanoscopic filler particle to probe the effects of a filler on the local melt structure and dynamics. We show that the glass transition temperature $T_g$ of the melt can be shifted to either higher or lower temperatures by appropriately tuning the interactions between polymer and filler. A gradual change of the polymer dynamics approaching the filler surface causes the change in the glass transition. We also find that while the bulk structure of the polymers changes little, the polymers close to the surface tend to be elongated and flattened, independent of the type of interaction we study. Consequently, the dynamics appear strongly influenced by the interactions, while the melt structure is only altered by the geometric constraints imposed by the presence of the filler. Our findings show a strong similarity to those obtained for ultra-thin polymer films (thickness $\lesssim 100$ nm) suggesting that both ultra-thin films and filled-polymer systems might be understood in the same context

Wave attenuation at a salt marsh margin: A case study of an exposed coast on the Yangtze estuary

To quantify wave attenuation by (introduced) Spartina alterniflora vegetation at an exposed macrotidal coast in the Yangtze Estuary, China, wave parameters and water depth were measured during 13 consecutive tides at nine locations ranging from 10 m seaward to 50 m landward of the low marsh edge. During this period, the incident wave height ranged from <0.1 to 1.5 m, the maximum of which is much higher than observed in other marsh areas around the world. Our measurements and calculations showed that the wave attenuation rate per unit distance was 1 to 2 magnitudes higher over the marsh than over an adjacent mudflat. Although the elevation gradient of the marsh margin was significantly higher than that of the adjacent mudflat, more than 80% of wave attenuation was ascribed to the presence of vegetation, suggesting that shoaling effects were of minor importance. On average, waves reaching the marsh were eliminated over a distance of similar to 80 m, although a marsh distance of >= 100 m was needed before the maximum height waves were fully attenuated during high tides. These attenuation distances were longer than those previously found in American salt marshes, mainly due to the macrotidal and exposed conditions at the present site. The ratio of water depth to plant height showed an inverse correlation with wave attenuation rate, indicating that plant height is a crucial factor determining the efficiency of wave attenuation. Consequently, the tall shoots of the introduced S. alterniflora makes this species much more efficient at attenuating waves than the shorter, native pioneer species in the Yangtze Estuary, and should therefore be considered as a factor in coastal management during the present era of sea-level rise and global change. We also found that wave attenuation across the salt marsh can be predicted using published models when a suitable coefficient is incorporated to account for drag, which varies in place and time due to differences in plant characteristics and abiotic conditions (i.e., bed gradient, initial water depth, and wave action).