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A Human Behavioral Ecology of the Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscapes

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Abstract

Human behavioral ecology has proven a valuable theoretical framework for evaluating the archaeological record of human population expansion the world over. To evaluate hypotheses for the late Pleistocene human colonization of the Americas, we need to address a typical assumption built into those models: static landscape knowledge. By taking landscape knowledge as the predicting variable, rather than a constant, we can explore the behavioral mechanisms involved in the interaction of humans with new and unfamiliar environments. Acknowledging the process of adaptation produces contrasting and readily testable hypotheses for human population expansion. As a case study, we use an ideal free distribution model to test competing hypotheses for the colonization of Southeast Alaska. Our results indicate that Southeast Alaska was likely colonized by humans prior to their appearance in the extant archaeological record in the early Holocene. The locations of our oldest archaeological sites in the early Holocene are best explained as the result of a well-established population matching their settlement locations to rising sea level.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the archaeologists and geologists of the Tongass National Forest for their tireless efforts expanding our record of the early Holocene archaeological record in southern Southeast Alaska, particularly Shona Pierce, Jane Smith, and Gina Esposito. We additionally thank members of the lead author’s doctoral committee (Joshua Reuther, Ben Potter, Patrick Plattet, and Vance Holliday) for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and our four anonymous reviewers for their suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 405A Bunnell Building, 1790 Tanana Loop, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA

    Nicholas Schmuck

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University, Fairfax, USA

    Jamie L. Clark

  3. US Forest Service, Tongass National Forest, Thorne Bay Ranger District, Thorne Bay, USA

    Risa J. Carlson & James F. Baichtal

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  1. Nicholas Schmuck
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Schmuck, N., Clark, J.L., Carlson, R.J. et al. A Human Behavioral Ecology of the Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscapes. J Archaeol Method Theory 29, 1323–1366 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-022-09554-w

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