Some Environmental and Cultural Factors Influencing the Structuring of Australian Aboriginal Populations

Birdsell, Joseph Benjamin

doi:10.1086/281776

Cited by 199 publications

(96 citation statements)

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“…It has been suggested that there may be an upper limit of around 500 individuals on the size of human groups which can act as a basic, self-de¢ning, sociodemographic unit (Birdsell 1953;Hunn 1994;cf. Sillitoe 1977).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The size distribution of conspecific populations: the peoples of New Guinea

Novotný

Drozd

2000

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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The size distribution of the language populations in New Guinea, which represent over 15% of the world's languages, is analysed using models analogous to the resource division models of species abundance distribution in ecological communities. A model distribution of resource segments re£ecting population size is created by repeated selection of an existing resource segment and its division into two. We found that any dependency of the selection probability on the size of the segment generated negatively skewed abundance distributions after log transformation. Asymmetric segment division further exacerbated the negative skewness. Size-independent selection produced lognormal abundance distributions, irrespective of the segment division method. Size-dependent selection and asymmetric division were deemed reasonable assumptions since large language populations are more likely to generate isolates, which develop into new populations, than small ones, and these isolates are likely to be small relative to the progenitor population. A negatively skewed distribution of the log-transformed population sizes was therefore expected. However, the observed distributions were lognormal, scale invariant for areas containing between 100 and over 1000 language populations. The dynamics of language di¡erentiation, as re£ected by the models, may therefore be unimportant relative to the e¡ect of variable growth rates among populations. All lognormal distributions from resource division models had a higher variance than the observed one, where half of the 1053 populations had between 350 and 3000 individuals. The possible mechanisms maintaining such a low variance around a modal population size of 1000 are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The size distribution of conspecific populations: the peoples of New Guinea

Novotný

Drozd

2000

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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“…Ethnographic studies have found a link between climate and the diet, mobility, and territory size of hunter-gatherers (17)(18)(19)(20). We hypothesize that correlation exists also between climate and hunter-gatherer population density.…”

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confidence: 99%

Human population dynamics in Europe over the Last Glacial Maximum

Tallavaara

Luoto

Korhonen

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

162

109

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The severe cooling and the expansion of the ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), 27,000-19,000 y ago (27-19 ky ago) had a major impact on plant and animal populations, including humans. Changes in human population size and range have affected our genetic evolution, and recent modeling efforts have reaffirmed the importance of population dynamics in cultural and linguistic evolution, as well. However, in the absence of historical records, estimating past population levels has remained difficult. Here we show that it is possible to model spatially explicit human population dynamics from the pre-LGM at 30 ky ago through the LGM to the Late Glacial in Europe by using climate envelope modeling tools and modern ethnographic datasets to construct a population calibration model. The simulated range and size of the human population correspond significantly with spatiotemporal patterns in the archaeological data, suggesting that climate was a major driver of population dynamics 30-13 ky ago. The simulated population size declined from about 330,000 people at 30 ky ago to a minimum of 130,000 people at 23 ky ago. The Late Glacial population growth was fastest during Greenland interstadial 1, and by 13 ky ago, there were almost 410,000 people in Europe. Even during the coldest part of the LGM, the climatically suitable area for human habitation remained unfragmented and covered 36% of Europe.hunter-gatherers | demography | niche modeling | climate change | Paleolithic G rowing populations of anatomically and behaviorally modern humans have been partly responsible for past ecosystem changes such as the extinctions of Pleistocene megafauna and Neanderthal humans (1, 2). In addition to the destiny of other species, human population size also influences our own cultural and genetic evolution. Large pools of interacting individuals can create and maintain adaptive skills, as well as phonological variation, more effectively than small populations, and they are also capable of faster cumulative cultural evolution (3-5). A decrease in population size may even result in a loss of complex cultural traits (6). The effects of population size on cultural variation are thus roughly similar to the effects of population size on genetic variation (7).The study of the role of human population size in cultural and genetic evolution and past ecosystem changes necessitates estimates of population dynamics extending far beyond historical times. The archaeological record illustrates patterns of human population range and size dynamics (8-10), but it does not offer quantitative population size data. Archaeological reconstructions of population dynamics are also bound to the regions and time periods that offer a sufficiently rich archaeological record. In addition to archaeological data, information on past population patterns can be inferred from genetic data using skyline-plot methods (11) and pairwise or multiple sequentially Markovian coalescent analyzes (12, 13). However, these methods depend on estimates of DNA mutation rate and ...

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“…Small territories typically result from situations where resource productivity is 1082 high, and in Australia where we have the best documentation of territory sizes for coastal and 1083 inland hunter-gatherers in similar environments (Tindale, 1974), coastal hunter-gatherers had the 1084 smallest territories (Birdsell, 1953) Prior to hunter-gatherers expanding their diet to aquatic resources, the predominant 1090 adaptation in Africa for millions of years of hominin evolution was likely to have been 1091 characterized by low population density, large territory size, high residential mobility, light 1092 technologies, and low levels of active boundary defense. This is consistent with the character of 1093 the archeological record in that from the earliest archeological sites through most of the MSA 1094 there are none of the tell-tale signs of sedentary, complex, territorial hunter-gatherers as signaled 1095 by cemeteries, high levels of violence, regionally defined stylistic markers, and densely occupied 1096 sites.…”

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confidence: 99%