Introduction: Beyond Foraging and Collecting: Evolutionary Change in Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems

Abstract

Twenty years ago, Lewis Binford published an article that revolutionized the study of hunter-gatherer and land use. The article, Willow Smmoke and Dogs‘ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Systems and Archeological Site Formation (Binford 1980), made the simple but elegant argument that seasonal or short-term hunter-gatherer mobility should be patterned in predictable ways with respect to spatial and temporal variation in resource availability. In the model, Binford distinguished residential mobility (the movement of all members oa a residential base from one locality to another) from logistical mobility (the movement of specially organized task groups on temporary excursions from a residential base). Based on these distinctions, Binford identified two basic subsistence-settlement systems: forager systems that are characterized by low logistical mobility and low residential mobility. According to Binford, the former systems are responses to environments where the distribution of important resources is spatially and/or temporally (seasonally) homogenous, whereas the latter systems are adapted to environments where the distributions of critical resources are spatially or temporally uneven.