Adaptation and niche construction in human prehistory: a case study from the southern Scandinavian Late Glacial.

ABSTRACT: The niche construction model postulates that human bio-social evolution is composed of three inheritance domains, genetic, cultural and ecological, linked by feedback selection. This paper argues that many kinds of archaeological data can serve as proxies for human niche construction processes, and presents a method for investigating specific niche construction hypotheses. To illustrate this method, the repeated emergence of specialized reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) hunting/herding economies during the Late Palaeolithic (ca 14.7-11.5 kyr BP) in southern Scandinavia is analysed from a niche construction/triple-inheritance perspective. This economic relationship resulted in the eventual domestication of Rangifer. The hypothesis of whether domestication was achieved as early as the Late Palaeo

SUBMITTER: Riede F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3048991 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature