气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Return rates from plant foraging on the Cape south coast: Understanding early human economies

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DOI	10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106129
	Return rates from plant foraging on the Cape south coast: Understanding early human economies
	Botha M.S.; Cowling R.M.; Esler K.J.; de Vynck J.C.; Cleghorn N.E.; Potts A.J.
发表日期	2020
ISSN	0277-3791
卷号	235
英文摘要	The Cape south coast of South Africa has attracted significant archaeological research because it hosts the earliest evidence of human cultural and material complexity. Furthermore, the now-submerged Palaeo-Agulhas Plain provided habitat and resources for humans during the emergence of modern behavioural traits. Using a human behavioural ecology approach—optimal foraging theory—we sought to understand how this region's flora may have contributed to the existence of early humans along the Cape south coast. We conducted monthly plant food foraging excursions over a two-year period in the seven main vegetation types that occur within the study area. Two (rarely three) local inhabitants harvested indigenous edible plant parts in 30-min foraging bouts. A total of sixty-eight participants (of Khoe-San descent), with knowledge on edible indigenous flora, contributed to 451 bouts. This study thus provides the largest published actualistic dataset on plant foraging returns. Without any prior knowledge of spatial resource density, the foragers harvested a total of 90 different edible species and obtained an overall mean (±SD) hourly return of 0.66 ± 0.45 kg/h or 141 ± 221 kcal/h. Apart from renosterveld, where winter returns were higher compared to summer, all other vegetation types showed no seasonal difference in return rates. Plants, therefore, most likely played an important role as fall-back or reliable staple food in the Cape south coast. Edible resources were unevenly distributed spatially, with calorific returns ranging from 0 to 2079 kcal/h, with fewer — but productive — high-density areas or “hotspots”. Sand fynbos (246 ± 307 kcal/h) and dune fynbos-thicket mosaic (214 ± 303 kcal/h) yielded significantly higher returns than other vegetation types (except for riparian). Prior knowledge of such hotspots, both within and amongst vegetation types, would have offered a significant foraging advantage. Finally, we provide the first quantified evidence that forager-extracted plant returns are significantly higher—nearly three times higher—in recently burnt sand and limestone fynbos vegetation. This supports Deacon's hypothesis that hunter-gatherers could have improved their return rates by purposely burning Cape vegetation (i.e. “fire-stick farming”) to give them access to temporally abundant geophyte "hotspots". We also demonstrate the current challenges when comparing plant return rates across different studies and discuss the benefits of using participants that are not full-time hunter gatherers. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
英文关键词	Cape south coast; Fire-stick farming; Hunter-gatherer; Plant foraging; Underground storage organs
语种	英语
scopus关键词	Ecology; Lime; Vegetation; Hunter-gatherer; Material complexity; Optimal foraging theory; Plant foraging; Prior knowledge; Seasonal differences; Spatial resources; Underground storage; Behavioral research; archaeological evidence; economic conditions; edible species; foraging behavior; historical time (human history); human behavior; hunter-gatherer; paleobiogeography; seasonal variation; vegetation cover; Agulhas Plain; South Africa; Western Cape
来源期刊	Quaternary Science Reviews
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/151506
作者单位	African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Botany Department, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa; Conservation Ecology & Entomology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa; Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, United States
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Botha M.S.,Cowling R.M.,Esler K.J.,et al. Return rates from plant foraging on the Cape south coast: Understanding early human economies[J],2020,235.
APA	Botha M.S.,Cowling R.M.,Esler K.J.,de Vynck J.C.,Cleghorn N.E.,&Potts A.J..(2020).Return rates from plant foraging on the Cape south coast: Understanding early human economies.Quaternary Science Reviews,235.
MLA	Botha M.S.,et al."Return rates from plant foraging on the Cape south coast: Understanding early human economies".Quaternary Science Reviews 235(2020).