The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation

Jeremy Koster^{1

2}, Richard McElreath^{2

3}, Kim Hill⁴, Douglas Yu^{5

6

7}, Glenn Shepard Jr⁸, Nathalie van Vliet⁹, Michael Gurven¹⁰, Benjamin Trumble^{4

11}, Rebecca Bliege Bird¹², Douglas Bird¹², Brian Codding¹³, Lauren Coad^{9

14}, Luis Pacheco-Cobos¹⁵, Bruce Winterhalder³, Karen Lupo¹⁶, Dave Schmitt¹⁶, Paul Sillitoe¹⁷, Margaret Franzen¹⁸, Michael Alvard¹⁹, Vivek Venkataraman²⁰, Thomas Kraft¹⁰, Kirk Endicott²¹, Stephen Beckerman¹³, Stuart A Marks^{22

23}, Thomas Headland²⁴, Margaretha Pangau-Adam^{25

26}, Anders Siren²⁷, Karen Kramer¹³, Russell Greaves¹³, Victoria Reyes-García^{28

29}, Maximilien Guèze²⁹, Romain Duda^{29

30}, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares³¹, Sandrine Gallois³², Lucentezza Napitupulu²⁹, Roy Ellen³³, John Ziker³⁴, Martin R Nielsen³⁵, Elspeth Ready^{2

36}, Christopher Healey³⁷, Cody Ross²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
² Department of Human Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
³ Department of Anthropology and Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
⁴ School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, China.
⁶ School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
⁷ Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
⁸ Division of Human Sciences, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil.
⁹ Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia.
¹⁰ Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
¹¹ Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
¹² Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
¹³ Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
¹⁴ Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁵ Facultad de Biologia, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.
¹⁶ Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA.
¹⁷ Anthropology Department, Durham University, Durham, UK.
¹⁸ Unaffiliated.
¹⁹ Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
²⁰ Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
²¹ Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
²² Department of Biology, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA.
²³ Department of Anthropology, University of the Free State, 205 Nelson Mandela Drive, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa.
²⁴ Department of Anthropology, SIL International, Dallas, TX, USA.
²⁵ Department of Conservation Biology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
²⁶ Biology Department-FMIPA, Cenderawasih University, Papua, Indonesia.
²⁷ Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
²⁸ Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.
²⁹ Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
³⁰ Unit Medical Anthropology and Ecology of Disease Emergence, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
³¹ Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
³² Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.
³³ School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
³⁴ Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA.
³⁵ Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
³⁶ Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
³⁷ School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

PMID: 32637588
PMCID: PMC7314517
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax9070

The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation

Jeremy Koster et al. Sci Adv. 2020.

. 2020 Jun 24;6(26):eaax9070.

doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax9070. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
² Department of Human Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
³ Department of Anthropology and Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
⁴ School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, China.
⁶ School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
⁷ Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
⁸ Division of Human Sciences, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil.
⁹ Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia.
¹⁰ Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
¹¹ Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
¹² Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
¹³ Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
¹⁴ Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁵ Facultad de Biologia, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.
¹⁶ Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA.
¹⁷ Anthropology Department, Durham University, Durham, UK.
¹⁸ Unaffiliated.
¹⁹ Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
²⁰ Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
²¹ Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
²² Department of Biology, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA.
²³ Department of Anthropology, University of the Free State, 205 Nelson Mandela Drive, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa.
²⁴ Department of Anthropology, SIL International, Dallas, TX, USA.
²⁵ Department of Conservation Biology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
²⁶ Biology Department-FMIPA, Cenderawasih University, Papua, Indonesia.
²⁷ Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
²⁸ Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.
²⁹ Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
³⁰ Unit Medical Anthropology and Ecology of Disease Emergence, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
³¹ Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
³² Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.
³³ School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
³⁴ Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA.
³⁵ Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
³⁶ Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
³⁷ School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

PMID: 32637588
PMCID: PMC7314517
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax9070

Abstract

Human adaptation depends on the integration of slow life history, complex production skills, and extensive sociality. Refining and testing models of the evolution of human life history and cultural learning benefit from increasingly accurate measurement of knowledge, skills, and rates of production with age. We pursue this goal by inferring hunters' increases and declines of skill from approximately 23,000 hunting records generated by more than 1800 individuals at 40 locations. The data reveal an average age of peak productivity between 30 and 35 years of age, although high skill is maintained throughout much of adulthood. In addition, there is substantial variation both among individuals and sites. Within study sites, variation among individuals depends more on heterogeneity in rates of decline than in rates of increase. This analysis sharpens questions about the coevolution of human life history and cultural adaptation.

Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

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Figures

**Fig. 1. Distribution of study sites.**
For the key, see Table 1.

**Fig. 2. Skill functions.**
The figure depicts the global average of skill (top left plot) and skill at the respective study sites. Within study sites, each curve is the posterior mean skill for an individual hunter, standardized to the maximum within each site. In the header of each plot, the site number and three-letter code are shown along with the number of individual hunters in each sample, followed by the number of observed harvests in parentheses. The orange span of ages corresponds to ages observed within each site, while the gray ranges were unobserved and are instead implied by the underlying model. The vertical dashed lines show the average ages at peak within sites.

**Fig. 3. Variation in components of skill.**
(**Top left**) Relative variation in k and m. The horizontal axis is the ratio of the SD of k to the SD of m. The vertical dashed line at 1 indicates equality of variances. The orange density is between-site variation. The cyan density is within-site variation. There is more variation in declines (m) than increases (k) in skill within sites, whereas the ratio is roughly equivalent across sites. (**Top right**) Correlation between k and m among individuals within sites. The orange density is the global average. Each cyan density represents a single site. The Aché stand out and are labeled separately. (**Bottom left** and **bottom right**) Variation in k (left) and m (right) comparing variation within and between sites.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation

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The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation

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