Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Comparative Study of Territoriality across Forager Societies

  • Published:
Human Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Land tenure systems vary considerably across forager societies. The economic defensibility model explains this variation by considering the costs and benefits of defending resources that vary in density and predictability. The purpose of our study was to describe and explain the variation in tenure systems across 30 hunter-gatherer societies from across the world using the economic defensibility model. We used qualitative data from the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) database on defense and sharing of resources among groups, and quantitative data from Binford’s Frames of References (2001) as indicators of resource density, resource predictability, and competition for resources. However, we were unable to explain the variation in territoriality using these independent variables. We argue that the diversity and complexity of foragers’ subsistence strategies is one of the main reasons for our failure to find correlations between territoriality and resource density and predictability. We propose that it may better to conceptualize tenure systems in foraging societies as assemblages of multiple property regimes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agar, M. 2006. An Ethnography By Any Other Name … Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 7.

  • Binford, L. R. 2001. Constructing frames of reference: an analytical method for archaeological theory building using hunter-gatherer and environmental data sets. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn, R. H. 1996. Fission, fusion, and foragers in East Africa: micro- and macroprocesses of diversity and integration among Okiek groups.in S. Kent, editor. Cultural diversity among twentieth-century foragers : an African perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK).

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J. L. 1964. The Evolution of Diversity in Avian Territorial Systems. The Wilson Bulletin 76:160-169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cashdan, E. 1983. Territoriality among human foragers: Ecological models and an application to four bushmen groups. Current Anthropology 24:47-66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chabot-Hanowell, B., and E. A. Smith. 2012. Territorial and Nonterritorial Routes to Power: Reconciling Evolutionary Ecological, Social Agency, and Historicist Approaches. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 22:72-86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Codding, B. F., and K. L. Kramer, editors. 2016. Why forage? Hunters and gatherers in the twenty-first century. School for Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe (NM).

    Google Scholar 

  • Codding, B. F., A. K. Parker, and T. L. Jones. 2017. Territorial behavior among Western North American foragers: Allee effects, within group cooperation, and between group conflict. Quaternary International.

  • Colbacchini, A., C. Albisetti, I. Lillios, and M. G. Missao Salesiana, 1942. Eastern Bororo Orarimogodogue Of The Eastern Plateau Of Mato Grosso. Page 454 Brasiliana (Grande Formato). Companhia Editora Nacional, Rio De Janiero, Brazil.

  • Crabtree, S. A., D. W. Bird, and R. B. Bird. 2019. Subsistence Transitions and the Simplification of Ecological Networks in the Western Desert of Australia. Human Ecology 47:165–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dillian, C. D. K. 2003. An Archaeological Approach to Tenitoriality and Boundary Defense among Northern Califomia Hunter-Gatherers. Senri Ethnological Studies 63:123-140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyson-Hudson, R., and E. A. Smith. 1978. Human territoriality: an ecological reassessment. American Anthropologist 80:21-41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ember, C. R. 2014. Hunter-gatherers.in C. R. Ember, editor. Explaining Human Culture. Human Relations Area Files, New Haven (CT).

  • Fabian, S. M. 1992. Space-Time of The Bororo Of Brazil. University Press of Florida, Gainesville (Florida).

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, J. 2019. Comment on:Comparative Study of Pastoral Property Regimes in Africa Offers No Support for Economic Defensibility Model. Current Anthropology 60:609-636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, J., and J. M. Anderies. 2015a. A comparative ethnoarchaeological analysis of corporate territorial ownership. Journal of Archaeological Science 54:135-147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, J., and J. M. Anderies. 2015b. The socioecology of hunter–gatherer territory size. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 39:110-123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, J., and J. A. Baggio. 2017. The effect of ownership on ecosystem management among human foragers. Quaternary International 518:11-20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodale, J. C. 1982. Production and reproduction of key resources among the Tiwi of North Australia. Pages 197-210 in N. M. Williams and E. S. Hunn, editors. Resource managers : North American and Australian hunter-gatherers. Westview Press, Boulder (CO).

    Google Scholar 

  • Human Relations Area Files inc. 2002. eHRAF World Cultures. Human Relations Area Files, New Haven, Conn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, R. L. 2013. The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, J. 2002. A Kalahari Family. Documentary Educational Resources, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mattison, S. M., E. A. Smith, M. K. Shenk, and E. E. Cochrane. 2016. The evolution of inequality. Evol Anthropol 25:184-199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moritz, M., E. Gardiner, M. Hubbe, and A. Johnson. 2019. Comparative Study of Pastoral Property Regimes in Africa Offers No Support for Economic Defensibility Model. Current Anthropology 60:609-636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murdock, G. P. 1967. Ethnographic Atlas: A Summary. Ethnology 6:109-236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, E. S., and J. T. Garth. 1981. Northern Ojibwa. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, E. A. 1988. Risk and uncertainty in the "original affluent society": evolutionary ecology of resource sharing and land tenure. Pages 222-251 in T. Ingold, D. Riches, and J. Woodburn, editors. Hunters and Gatherers: History, Evolution, and Social Change. Berg, Oxford (UK).

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, D. H. 1981. Complexity among Great Basin Shoshoneans: The World's Least Affluent Hunter-Gatherers. Pages 19-52 in S. Koyama and D. Thomas, editors. Affluent Foragers. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (Japan).

    Google Scholar 

  • Watanabe, H. 1964. Ainu: A Study of Ecology and the System of Social Solidarity Between Man and Nature in Relation to Group Structure. University of Tokyo, Tokyo (Japan).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank all the students enrolled in ANTHROP 5620: Hunters and Gatherers in 2017, 2018, and 2019 who participated in this collaborative research project by helping with data collection, data analysis, and interpretation of the results: Sidney Baker, Melissa Beard, Anya Cohen, Kyle Corbin, Bethany Critchlow, Nadia Debick, Annika Doneghy, Daniel Duboe, Melina Edic, Kimmie Elliot, Haley Fuller, Cassidy Green, Mae Harris, Austin Howard, Katie Lewis, Cella Masso-Rivetti, Ana Mitchell, Elizabeth Neff, Sam Petri, Allyson Simon, Ashleigh Thompson, Juliet White, Roy Whitfield, Asia Briana Adomanis, Wyatt Bamfield, Lauren Bradley, Taylor Bryan, Grace Calhoun, Chen Monica, Erin Engstrom, Sonia Fantz, Megan Hardie, Devin Jordan, Sophia Kiselova-Sammons, Trevor Kohrmann, Jenna Messer, Callie Moore, Kyle Riordan, Sophia Saunders, Cody Sheeley, Rachael Simons, Julianne Stamer, Lucas Tsitouris, Erika Wallace, Brittany Wexler, Brayana Whatley, Hannah Wright, Natalie Yoder, Chloe Cooper, Shannon Nastold, Erin Rose Shaeffer, Hannah Tomaszewski, Emma Rodas, Mary Thibault, Kelsey McFarland, Brigid Ogden, Addison Ruhlman, Katie Farley, Charlie Fineran, Jessica Nystrom, Grace Kallenberg, Catherine Mendel, Aaron Shifrin, Trent Gramlich, Cristin Day, Courtni France, Ryan Schuck, Clancey Butts, Jennifer Mandalich, Ian Olexio, Lauren McClure, Shannon Reirden, Samantha Underwood, and Tom Pitkin. In addition, we want to thank Carol Ember and Christiane Cunnar of the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) for assisting with training students in cross-cultural research using the eHRAF database and Amber Johnson for her advice on using the Frames of References database for macro-ecological research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, 174 W. 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210-1106, USA

    Mark Moritz, Shane Scaggs, Craig Shapiro & Sarah Hinkelman

Authors
  1. Mark Moritz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shane Scaggs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Craig Shapiro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sarah Hinkelman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Moritz.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest financially or non-financially, directly or indirectly related to this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Moritz, M., Scaggs, S., Shapiro, C. et al. Comparative Study of Territoriality across Forager Societies. Hum Ecol 48, 225–234 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00141-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00141-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation