The effect of handling time on subsistence technology

Abstract

Models in evolutionary ecology have been applied to non-human decision making for decades. Archaeologists have been especially attracted to foraging models, because the evidence of past subsistence activities is a common component of the archaeological record world-wide. No foraging model, though, accounts for the effects of subsistence technology. The 'Tech Investment Model' we describe here does just this. Assuming that most technologies serve to reduce handling time, a critical component of a resource's profitability, the model generates predictions about how much time an individual should invest in any particular technology. Although preliminary, data from an initial test case in the Great Basin conform to the general expectations of the model. Most importantly, the exercise forces attention to the relationships between tools and the resources handled with them, and has implications for subsistence transitions world-wide.