Hunter–gatherer mobility and technological landscapes in southernmost South America: a statistical learning approach

The present work aims to quantitatively explore and understand the relationship between mobility types (nautical versus pedestrian), specific technological traits and shared technological knowledge in pedestrian hunter–gatherer and nautical hunter–fisher–gatherer societies from the southernmost portion of South America. To that end, advanced statistical learning techniques are used: state-of-the-art classification algorithms and variable importance analyses. Results show a strong relationship between technological knowledge, traits and mobility types. Occupations can be accurately classified into nautical and pedestrian due to the existence of a non-trivial pattern between mobility and a relatively small fraction of variables from some specific technological categories. Cases where the best-fitted classification algorithm fails to generalize are found significantly interesting. These instances can unveil lack of information, not enough entries in the training set, singular features or ambiguity, the latter case being a possible indicator of the interaction between nautical and pedestrian societies.HAR-2009-06996, CSD2010-00034, HAR2017- 90883-REDC, CULM-HAR2016-77672-P (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacio´n de Espan˜ a); PIP-0706, PIP-0348 (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas y Tecnolo´gicas-Argentina) and PICT 2012-2148 (Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnologı´a e Innovacio´n Productiva de la Repu´ blica Argentina); PROC/12-120610-A (SESAR WPE Long Term and Innovative Research-European Commission); and Project GR-7846 (Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

High Diversity of the Saliva Microbiome in Batwa Pygmies

We describe the saliva microbiome diversity in Batwa Pygmies, a former hunter-gatherer group from Uganda, using next-generation sequencing of partial 16S rRNA sequences. Microbial community diversity in the Batwa is significantly higher than in agricultural groups from Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We found 40 microbial genera in the Batwa, which have previously not been described in the human oral cavity. The distinctive composition of the salvia microbiome of the Batwa may have been influenced by their recent different lifestyle and diet

The bashful and the boastful : prestigious leaders and social change in Mesolithic Societies

The creation and maintenance of influential leaders and authorities is one of the key themes of archaeological and historical enquiry. However the social dynamics of authorities and leaders in the Mesolithic remains a largely unexplored area of study. The role and influence of authorities can be remarkably different in different situations yet they exist in all societies and in almost all social contexts from playgrounds to parliaments. Here we explore the literature on the dynamics of authority creation, maintenance and contestation in egalitarian societies, and discuss the implications for our interpretation and understanding of the formation of authorities and leaders and changing social relationships within the Mesolithic

Robustness assessment of the ‘cooperation under resource pressure’ (CURP) model: Insights on resource availability and sharing practices among hunter-gatherers

A well-known challenge in archaeological research is the exploration of the social mechanisms that hunter-gatherers may have implemented throughout history to deal with changes in resource availability. The agent-based model (ABM) ‘cooperation under resource pressure’ (CURP) was conceived to explore food stress episodes in societies lacking a food preservation technology. It was particularly aimed at understanding how cooperative behaviours in the form of food sharing practices emerge, increase and may become the prevailing strategy in relation to changes in resource availability and expectancy of reciprocity. CURP’s main outcome is the identification of three regimes of behaviour depending on the stress level. In this work, the model’s robustness to the original selection mechanism (random tournament) is assessed, as different dynamics can lead to different persistent regimes. For that purpose, three other selection mechanisms are implemented and evaluated, to identify the prevailing states of the system. Results show that the three regimes are robust irrespective of the analysed dynamics. We consequently examine in more detail the long-term archaeological implications that these results may have.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (former Ministry of Science and Innovation): SimulPast Project (CSD2010- 00034 CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010), HAR2009-06996 and CULM Project (HAR2016- 77672-P); from the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET): Project PIP-0706; from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research: Project GR7846; from the project H2020 FET OPEN RIA IBSEN/662725 and from the European Social Fund as one of the authors is the recipient of a predoctoral grant from the Department of Education of Junta de Castilla y León (Spain)

Social cooperation and resource management dynamics among late hunter-fisher-gatherer societies in Tierra del Fuego (South America)

This paper presents the theoretical basis and first results of an agent-based model (ABM) computer simulation that is being developed to explore cooperation in hunter–gatherer societies. Specifically, we focus here on Yamana, a hunter-fisher-gatherer society that inhabited the islands of the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina–Chile). Ethnographical and archaeological evidence suggests the existence of sporadic aggregation events, triggered by a public call through smoke signals of an extraordinary confluence of resources under unforeseeable circumstances in time and space (a beached whale or an exceptional accumulation of fish after a low tide, for example). During these aggregation events, the different social units involved used to develop and improve production, distribution and consumption processes in a collective way. This paper attempts to analyse the social dynamics that explain cooperative behaviour and resource-sharing during aggregation events using an agent-based model of indirect reciprocity. In brief, agents make their decisions based on the success of the public strategies of other agents. Fitness depends on the resource captured and the social capital exchanged in aggregation events, modified by the agent’s reputation. Our computational results identify the relative importance of resources with respect to social benefits and the ease in detecting—and hence punishing—a defector as key factors to promote and sustain cooperative behaviour among populationSpanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (projects CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 SimulPast-CSD2010-00034 and HAR2009-06996) as well as from the Argentine Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (project PIP-0706) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (project GR7846)

Effect of resource spatial correlation and Hunter-Fisher-Gatherer mobility on social cooperation in Tierra del Fuego

This article presents an agent-based model designed to explore the development of cooperation in hunter-fisher-gatherer societies that face a dilemma of sharing an unpredictable resource that is randomly distributed in space. The model is a stylised abstraction of the Yamana society, which inhabited the channels and islands of the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina-Chile). According to ethnographic sources, the Yamana developed cooperative behaviour supported by an indirect reciprocity mechanism: whenever someone found an extraordinary confluence of resources, such as a beached whale, they would use smoke signals to announce their find, bringing people together to share food and exchange different types of social capital. The model provides insight on how the spatial concentration of beachings and agents’ movements in the space can influence cooperation. We conclude that the emergence of informal and dynamic communities that operate as a vigilance network preserves cooperation and makes defection very costly.MICINN http://www.idi.mineco.gob.es/ CSD2010-00034 (SimulPast CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010) and HAR2009-06996; the government of Castilla y Leónhttp://www.jcyl.es/ GREX251-2009; the Argentine CONICET http://www.conicet.gov.ar/PIP-0706; and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Researchhttp://www.wennergren.org/ "Social Aggregation: A Yamana Society's Short Term Episode to Analyse Social Interaction, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina". The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip

Über die Eigenart der afrikanischen Pygmäen

No abstract available