Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T11:53:09.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early Paleoindian Women, Children, Mobility, and Fertility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Todd A. Surovell
Todd A. Surovell*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

If we take the archaeological record at face value, the colonization of unglaciated North America appears to have been very rapid. The highly consistent dating of Clovis archaeological sites (11,500-10,800 B.P.) suggests that this continent was populated within a matter of centuries. To explain the spatial and temporal scales of this phenomenon, it is necessary to invoke both high mobility and high fertility rates during the initial colonization process. However, it is widely believed that it is maladaptive for mobile foragers to have large numbers of offspring due to the costs of transporting those children. Thus, the archaeological record presents us with a paradox. Using a mathematical model that estimates the costs of raising children for mobile hunter-gatherers, this paper asks the question-is high mobility compatible with high fertility? It is concluded that high mobility, if defined as the frequent movement of residential base camps, is quite compatible with high fertility, and that early Paleoindians could indeed have been characterized by high reproductive rates. Therefore, it is quite possible that the Americas were populated very rapidly by highly mobile hunter-gatherers.

Resumen

Resumen

Si nos circunscribimos a las evidencias existentes, el poblamiento de Norteamérica parece haber sido un fenómeno bastante rápido. Los datos altamente consistentes acerca de la ocupación Clovis (11,500-10,800 A.P.) sugieren que el continente fue poblado en cuestión de siglos. El explicar la dimensión espacial y temporal de este fenómeno nos lleva a considerar altos índices de mobilidad y fertilidad durante elproceso de poblamiento inicial. Sin embargo, comúnmente se considera que, para recolectores móbiles, es inadecuado tener un número muy elevado de infantes, debido a los costos de transporte de los mismos. En ese sentido, la evidencia arqueologíca nos presenta una paradoja. A través de un modelo matemático de estimación de los costos de mantenimiento de ninos en cazadores-recolectores mobiles, este trabajo plantea la pregunta: ¿Es compatible la alta mobilidad con la alta fertilidad? Se concluye que la alta mobilidad, definida como el desplazamiento frecuente de campamentos residenciales, es bastante compatible con un alto indice de fertilidad y que los pobladores paleoindios tempranos podrian caracterizarse por altos índices reproductivos. De esta manera, es posible que América fuera poblada rapidamente por cazadores-recolectores altamente móbiles.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 65 , Issue 3 , July 2000 , pp. 493 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Referrences Cited

Adovasio, J. M., and Pedler, D. R. 1997 Monte Verde and the Antiquity of Humankind in the Americas. Antiquity 71:573–580.Google Scholar
Balikci, A. 1967 Female Infanticide on the Arctic Coast. Man 2: 615–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batt, C. M., and Pollard, A. M. 1996 Radiocarbon Calibration and the Peopling of North America. InArchaeological Chemistry, edited by Pollard, A. M., pp. 415–433. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaton, J. M. 1991 Colonizing Continents: Some Problems from Australia and the Americas. In The First Americans: Search and Research, edited by Dillehay, T. D. and Meltzer, D.J. pp. 209–230. CRC Press, Boca Raton.Google Scholar
Bentley, G. 1985 Hunter-Gatherer Energetics and Fertility: A reassessment of the !Kung San. Human Ecology 13: 79–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1980 Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. American Antiquity 45: 4–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1982 The Archaeology of Place. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1: 5–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R., and Chasko, J. W. J. 1976 Nunamiut Demographic History: A Provocative Case. In Demographic Anthropology: Quantitative Approaches, edited by Zubrow, E. B. W., pp. 63–143. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Blurton Jones, N. 1986 Bushman Birth Spacing: A Test for Optimal Birth Intervals. Ethology and Sociobiology 8: 183–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blurton Jones, N. 1987 Bushman Birth Spacing: Direct Tests of Some Simple Predictions. Ethology and Sociobiology 8: 183–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blurton Jones, N. 1989 The Costs of Children and the Adaptive Scheduling of Births: Towards A Sociobiological Perspective on Demography. In The Sociobiology of Sexual and Reproductive Strategies, edited by Rasa, A. E., Vogel, C., and Voland, E., pp. 265–283. Chapman and Hall, London.Google Scholar
Blurton Jones, N. 1994 A Reply to Dr. Harpending. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 93: 391–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blurton Jones, N., Hawkes, K., and Draper, P. 1994a Differences between Hadza and !Kung cHildren's Work: Original Affluence or Practical Reason? In Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, edited by Burch, E. S. Jr. and Ellana, L. J., pp. 189–215. Berg, Oxford.Google Scholar
Blurton Jones, N., Hawkes, K., and Draper, P. 1994b Foraging Returns of !Kung adults and Children: Why didn't !Kung Children Forage? Journal of Anthropological Research 50: 217–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blurton Jones, N. G., Hawkes, K., and O'Connell, J. F. 1989 Modelling and Measuring Costs of Children in Two Foraging Societies. In Comparative Socioecology of Mammals and Man, edited by Standen, V. and Foley, R., pp. 367–390. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Blurton Jones, N. G., and Sibly, R. M. 1978 Testing Adaptiveness of Culturally Determined Behavior. In Human Behaviour and Adaptation, edited by Blurton Jones, N. and Reynolds, V., pp. 325–248. Symposia of the Society for the Study of Human Biology, Vol. 18. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Blurton Jones, N. G., Smith, L. C., O'Connell, J. F., Hawkes, K., and Kamazura, C. 1992 Demography of the Hadza, An Increasing and High- Density Population of Savanna Foragers. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 89: 159–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, K. L., and Wood, J. W. 1988 Fertility in Traditional Societies. In Natural Human Fertility: Social and Biological Determinants, edited by Diggory, P., Potts, M., and Teper, S., pp. 33–69. Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Carr-Saunders, A. 1922 The Population Problem: A Study in Human Evolution. Clarendon, Oxford.Google Scholar
Cech, D., and Martin, S. T. 1995 Functional Movement Development across the Life Span. W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Clastres, P. 1972 The Guayaki. In Hunters and Gatherers Today, edited by Bicchieri, M. G., pp. 138–174. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, Illinois.Google Scholar
Draper, P. 1976 Social and Economic Constraints on Child Life among the !Kung. In Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers, edited by Lee, R. B. and DeVore, I., pp. 199–217. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ellison, P. T. 1990 Human Ovarian Function and Reproductive Ecology: New Hypotheses. American Anthropologist 92: 933–952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiedel, S. J. 1999 Older than We Thought: Implications of Corrected Dates for Paleoindians. American Antiquity 64: 95–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frison, G. C, and Todd, L. C. 1986 The Colby Mammoth Site. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Goodyear, A. C. 1989 A Hypothesis forme Use of Cryptocrystalline Raw Materials among Paleoindian Groups of North America In Eastern Paleoindian Lithic Resource Use, edited by Ellis, C. and Lothrop, J., pp. 1–10. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Handwerker, W. P. 1983 The First Demographic Transition: An Analysis of Subsistence Choices and Reproductive Consequences. American Anthropologist 85: 5–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harpending, H. 1994 Infertility and Forager Demography. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 93: 385–390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hassan, F. A. 1981 Demographic Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haury, E. W. 1953 Artifacts with Mammoth Remains, Naco, Arizona. American Antiquity 19: 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haury, E. W., Sayles, E. B., and Wasley, W. W. 1959 The Lehner Mammoth Site, Southeastern Arizona. American Antiquity 25: 2–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, K., Hill, K., and O'Connell, J. F. 1982 Why Hunters Gather: Optimal Foraging and the Ache of Eastern Paraguay. American Ethnologist 9: 379–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, K., O'Connell, J. F., and Blurton Jones, N. G. 1995 Hadza Children's Foraging: Juvenile Dependency, Social Arrangements, and Mobility among Hunter-Gatherers. Current Anthropology 36: 688–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay den, B. 1972 Population Control among Hunter/Gatherers. World Archaeology 4: 205–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr., Donahue, D. J., Jull, A. J. T., and Zebel, T. H. 1984 Application of Accelerator Dating to Fluted Point Paleoindian Sites. Archaeology of Eastern North America 12: 184–191.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1966 Elephant-Hunting in North America. Scientific American 214: 104–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1971 Time, Environment, and Early Man. Arctic Anthropology 8: 3–14 Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1980 The Clovis culture. Canadian Journal of Anthropology 1(1): 115–121.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1992 Contributions of Radiocarbon Dating to the Geochronology of the Peopling of the New World. In Radiocarbon after Four Decades, edited by Taylor, R. E., Long, A., and Kra, S., pp. 355–374. Springer-Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1993 Clovis-Folsom Geochronology and Climatic Change. In From Kostenki to Clovis: Upper Paleolithic - Paleo-Indian Adaptations, edited by Soffer, O. and Praslov, N.D. pp. 219–236. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemmings, E. T., and Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1969 The Escapule Mammoth and Associated Projectile Points, San Pedro Valley, Arizona. Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science 5: 184–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemmings, E. T. 1970 Early Man in the San Pedro Valley, Arizona. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hester, J. J. 1972 Blackwater Locality No. 1: A Stratified Early Man Site in Eastern New Mexico. Publication No. 8. Fort Burgwin Research Center, Rancho de Taos, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Hester, J. J., and Grady, J. 1977 Paleoindian Social Patterns on the Llano Estacado. In Paleo-Indian Lifeways, edited by Johnson, E., pp. 78–96. The Museum Journal, Vol. 17. West Texas Museum Association, Lubbock, Texas.Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. S. 1991a Demography and Childcare in Preindustrial Societies. Journal of Anthropological Research 47: 1–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hewlett, B. S. 1991b Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant Care. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, K., and Hurtado, A. M. 1996 Ache Life History: The Ecology and Demography of a Foraging People. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.Google Scholar
Hofman, J. L. 1994 Paleoindian Aggregations on the Great Plains. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13: 341–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, N. 1976 The Population of the Dobe Area !Kung. In Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers, edited by Lee, R. B. and DeVore, I., pp. 137–151. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Howell, N. 1979 Demography of the Dobe !Kung. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hurtado, A. M., and Hill, K. R. 1987 Early Dry Season Subsistence Ecology of Cuiva (Hiwi) Foragers of Venezuela. Human Ecology 15: 163–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurtado, A. M., and Hill, K. R. 1990 Seasonality in a Foraging Society: Variation in Diet, Work Effort, Fertility, and Sexual Division of Labor among the Hiwi of Venezuela. Journal of Anthropological Research 15: 163–187.Google Scholar
Irwin, C. 1989 The Sociocultural Biology of Netsilingmiut Female Infanticide. In The Sociobiology of Sexual and Reproductive Strategies, edited by Rasa, A., Vogel, C., and Voland, E., pp. 234—264. Chapman and Hall, London.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. H. 1995 Protoagricultural Practices among Hunter-Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Survey. In Last Hunters First Farmers, edited by Price, T. D. and Gebauer, A.B. pp. 243–272. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1983 Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Research 39: 277–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1995 The Foraging Spectrum. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Kelly, R.L., and Todd, L.C. 1988 Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility. American Antiquity 53: 231–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitagawa, H., and van der Plicht, J. 1998 Atmospheric Radiocarbon Calibration to 45,000 Yr B .P.: Late Glacial Fluctuations and Cosmogenic Isotope Production. Science 279: 1187–1190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konner, M., and Worthman, C. 1980 Nursing Frequency, Gonadal Function, and Birth Spacing among !Kung Hunter-Gatherers. Science 207: 788–791.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, R. B. 1972 Population Growth and the Beginnings of Sedentary Life among the !Kung Bushmen. In Population Growth: Anthropological Implications, edited by Spooner, B., pp. 319–342. The MIT Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 1979 The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Leonhardy, F. C. 1966 Domebo: A Paleo-lndian Mammoth Kill in the Prarie- Plains. Contributions of the Museum of the Great Plains, Lawton, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
MacDonald, D. H. 1999 Modeling Folsom Mobility, Mating Strategies, and Technological Organization in the Northern Plains. Plains Anthropologist 44: 141–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, D. H., and Hewlett, B. S. 1999 Reproductive Interests and Forager Mobility. Current Anthropology 40: 501–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P. S. 1973 The Discovery of America. Science 179: 969–974.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meltzer, D. J. 1993a Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. Evolutionary Anthropology 1: 157–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzer, D. J. 1993b Is There a Clovis Adaptation? In From Kostenki to Clovis: Upper Paleolithic: Paleo-lndian Adaptations, edited by Soffer, O. and Praslov, N. D., pp. 293–310. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzer, D. J. 1995 Clocking the First Americans. Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 21–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzer, D. J. 1997 Monte Verde and the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. Science 276: 754–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzer, D. J. 1999 Comment on “Reproductive Interests and Forager Mobility” by D. H. MacDonald and B. S. Hewlett. Current Anthropology 40: 519–520.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D. I., Grayson, D. K., Ardila, G., Barker, A. W., Dincauze, D. F., Haynes, C. V. Jr., Mena, F., Nunez, L., and Stanford, D. J. 1997 On the Pleistocene Antiquity of Monte Verde, Southern Chile. American Antiquity 62: 659–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, B. 1982 Forest Traders: A Socio-Economic Study of the HillPandaram. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology No. 55. The Athlone Press, Totowa, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Mosimann, J. F, and Martin, P. S. 1975 Simulating Overkill by Paleoindians. American Scientist 63: 304–313.Google Scholar
O'Connell, J. F, and Hawkes, K. 1981 Alyawara Plant Use and Optimal Foraging Theory. In Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies, edited by Winterhalder, B. and Smith, E.A. pp. 99–125. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Pennington, J. A. T. 1989 Bowes and Church's Food Values of Portions Commonly Used. Harper and Row, New York.Google Scholar
Pennington, R., and Harpending, H. 1988 Fitness and Fertility among Kalahari !Kung. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 77: 303–319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sellards, E. H. 1952 Early Man in America: A Study in Prehistory. University of Texas Press, Austin Google Scholar
Smith, E. A., and Smith, S. A. 1994 Inuit Sex-Ratio Variation: Population Control, Ethnographic Error or Parental Manipulation? Current Anthropology 35: 595–624.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spielmann, K. A. 1989 A Review: Dietary Restrictions on Hunter-Gatherer Women and the Implications for Fertility and Infant Mortality. Human Ecology 17: 321–345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanford, D. 1978 Some Clovis Points. Paper presented at the 5th Biennial Meeting of the American Quaternary Association, Edmonton, AlbertaGoogle Scholar
Steele, J., Adams, J., and Sluckin, T. 1998 Modelling Paleoindian Dispersals. World Archaeology 30: 286–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Storck, P. 1991 Imperialists without a State: The Cultural Dynamics of Early Paleoindian Colonization as Seen from the Great Lakes Region. In Clovis: Origins and Adaptations, edited by Bonnichsen, R. and Turnmire, K.L. pp. 153–162. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Corvallis, Oregon.Google Scholar
Sutherland, D. H., Olshen, R. A., Biden, E. N., and 'Wyatt, M. P. 1988 The Development of Mature Walking. Clinics in Developmental Medicine 104/105Google Scholar
Tankersley, K. B. 1991 A Geoarchaeological Investigation of Distribution and Exchange in the Raw Material Economies of Clovis Groups in Eastern North America. In Raw Material Economies among Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers, edited by Montet- White, A. and Holen, S., pp. 285- 303. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E., Haynes, C. V. Jr., and Stuiver, M. 1996 Clovis and Folsom Age Estimates: Stratigraphic Context and Radiocarbon Calibration. Antiquity 70: 515–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, Esmee and David Rindos. 1993 The Mode and Tempo of the Colonization of Empty Landmasses: Sahul and the Americas Compared. In Rediscovering Darwin: Evolutionary Theory and Archaeological Explanation, edited by Barton, C. M. and Clark, G.A. pp. 233–250. Archeological Paper No. 7. American Anthropological Association, Arlington, Virginia.Google Scholar
Whitley, D. S., and Dorn, R. I. 1993 New Perspectives on the Clovis vs. pre-Clovis Controversy. American Antiquity 58: 626–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilmsen, E. 1978 Seasonal Effects of Dietary Intake on Kalahari San. Federation Proceedings 37: 65–72.Google ScholarPubMed
Winterhalder, B., and Goland, C. 1993 On Population, Foraging Efficiency, and Plant Domestication. Current Anthropology 34: 710–715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, J. W 1990 Fertility in Anthropological Populations. Annual Review of Anthropology 19: 211–242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization 1985 Energy and Protein Requirements. World Health Organization, Geneva.Google Scholar
Young, D., and Bonnichsen, R. 1984 UnderstandingStoneTools: ACognitiveApproach.Center for the Study of Early Man, University of Maine, Oronob.Google Scholar