Endogenous Population and Resource Cycles in Historical Hunter-Gatherer Economies

Abstract

This paper constructs a formal spatial model of a hunter-gatherer economy. By assuming that resource locations around a hunter gatherer camp can become congested I obtain the size of the area harvested as a function of population, resource density, gathering efficiency and time costs of commuting to locations. The model is then extended to include Malthusian and resource dynamics. The resulting dynamic properties are quite rich, with the possibility of stable steady states, as well as stable and unstable cycles. One result is that technological progress can actually cause such economies to collapse due to overharvesting of resources. Next, the model is extended to include the possibility of both group and individual migration. The former removes the possibility of collapse and exploding oscillations but introduces a new source of fluctuations in resources and population. Individual migration on the other hand, as long as there is no limit on new camp sites which can be settled by daughter colonies, will completely preclude the existence of oscillations.

Handbook of Evolutionary Research in Archaeology

“…Their subsistence effectiveness depends on the selective harvesting of the animal and vegetable foods they encounter. Building on Lotka and Volterra, Winterhalder and students (1988; see also Freeman and Anderies 2012;Szulga 2012) modeled a forager population that grew or declined in size as a function of its foraging efficiency. The human foragers in the analysis are linked via an optimal diet selection model to an environment of animal and plant populations with densities that increase or decrease as a function of whether or not they are exploited upon encounter.…”

Modeling Malthusian Dynamics in Pre-Industrial Societies

“…According to Brander and Taylor, the crop is denoted by the term uStNt and it is deducted from the resource St. According to Szulga (2012), such a model describes a society of gatherers (or hunters) rather than an agrarian society. However, Malthus mainly studied agricultural economies.…”