Authors

Eleftheria Paliou¹, Andreas Angourakis^1,2, Simon Kellers¹, Oliver Vogels¹

¹ Institute of Archaeology, University of Cologne.

² Institute of Archaeological Studies, Ruhr University Bochum, Leibniz ScienceCampus "ReForm".

Abstract

The resource strategies and engagement of foragers in plant and animal management are among the most challenging, and yet compelling, topics in current archaeological research (Kintigh et al. 2014, p.17). Hunting and gathering are pivotal in discussions on the subsistence practices, ecological resilience and social organisation of foraging societies. A number of publications in the last fifteen years have maintained that foragers, past and present, not only adopt optimising behaviours while hunting and gathering (Raichlen et al.2014), but they also engage in targeted niche-construction activities, including controlled fire practices, aimed at increasing plant and animal resource predictability in their habitats (Nikulina et al. 2022; Svizzero 2016; Scherjon et al. 2015; Smith 2011). These works, contrary to previous research, do not see hunter-gatherers as primarily “passive, immediate-return foragers”, relying on available resources, but as agents who are actively involved in resource management, transforming their local environments in favour of their livelihood (Lightfoot et al. 2013). 

Despite the fact that such views on foraging societies have been gaining increasing popularity among archaeologists in recent years, the resource strategies relating to hunting in the past remain largely unknown today, since they hardly left any traces in the archaeological record. Traditional hunting practices (i.e. hunting on foot, with a bow and arrow as opposed to firearms, and without the orientation instruments available today) have yet to be systematically explored and are still little understood. Furthermore, the role of controlled fire practices in increasing plant resources and attracting game, and hence, enhancing the chances of hunting success and survival resilience, has not been considered in computational models of hunter-gatherer behaviour.

This paper discusses a collaborative interdisciplinary project that brings together archaeologists and indigenous hunting experts, so as to better understand traditional hunting strategies and inform theoretical and computational models of hunter-gatherer mobility and behaviour. The project offers a rare opportunity to capture using geospatial technologies the movements of Ju/’hoansi and Hai//kom San game tracking experts during hunting bouts in arid landscapes in Namibia. During five field seasons, which took place between 2019 and 2023, a variety of georeferenced quantitative data (including movement trajectories, heart rate, caloric expenditure, and wind data) were collected.  Furthermore, valuable qualitative insights into traditional ecological practices (incl. controlled small-scale fire practices) were gained during fieldwork via formal and informal interviews that took place during and after the hunting bouts.

Our presentation will examine how these insights and datasets can be used to support computational models of foraging behaviour, and especially agent-based models that seek to explore the relationship between environmental changes and foraging decisions in arid ecosystems. To this aim, we will present the results of quantitative data analysis aimed at examining the fit of movement trajectories recorded during hunting to power law functions suggesting optimised search strategies, namely Lévy walk patterns. Here, our analysis results challenge previous research which concluded that the movements of indigenous hunters are similar to Lévy walks (Raichlen et al. 2014). Furthermore, the impact of environmental variables (for example, elevation, distance to water sources, distance to vegetated areas, rainfall data etc) on hunting success, was explored using logistic regression and multivariate logistic regression. This approach considered the environmental characteristics of the locations in which the indigenous trackers approached or successfully “shot” animals during fieldwork, and allowed the formal identification of environmental variables associated with potentially successful hunts.

The insights from these analyses, together with a variety of qualitative data collected during fieldwork, were used to support the conceptualisation of a “Hunter-Prey Game” model, aimed at comprehending hunting success at a situational scale as the outcome of a complex game between hunters and preys, in terms of presence versus perception (line-of-sight, noise, and smell). This model factors as parameters other behavioural constraints (e.g., reaction time, maximum speed, baseline prey behaviour, skill, knowledge of the surroundings, hunting technology), as well as environmental conditions (e.g., number and composition of prey and hunter groups, vegetation, water sources, temperature, wind) whose determinants lay beyond the spatiotemporal scale of hunting bouts. With a broad exploration of hunting bout scenarios, our work aims at addressing the role of environmental conditions also at a larger scale (e.g., areas surrounding a camp or village), as they are considered in decision-making during planning or actively managed through niche construction practices, such as controlled fires. Finally, we conclude that Traditional Ecological Knowledge has the potential to contribute to a better understanding of past socio-ecological processes, and encourage new directions in modelling past human ecosystems.

References

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