Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:21:40.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Man the Showoff? Or the Ascendance of a Just-so-Story: A Comment on Recent Applications of Costly Signaling Theory in American Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Brian F. Codding  and
Terry L. Jones
Brian F. Codding
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Building 360, Stanford, CA 94305-2117 (bcodding@stanford.edu)
Terry L. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407(tjones@calpoly.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In several recent, and highly provocative papers, McGuire and Hildebrandt (Hildebrandt and McGuire 2002, 2003; McGuire and Hildebrandt 2005) have helped introduce costly signaling theory into American archaeology. While their efforts are commendable, we feel that their reinterpretations of western North American prehistory overstate the likely influence of costly signaling on the archaeological record. Only by overlooking a considerable body of ethnographic literature that indicates a more limited role for signaling are they able to characterize Great Basin and California hunters as motivated more by the pursuit of prestige than provisioning. We offer three specific challenges to their models: (1) while McGuire and Hildebrandt treat the issue as decided, the relationships among foraging, provisioning, prestige, and fitness is still actively contested among researchers; (2) while ethnographic studies suggest that some types of hunting and low-return, high-risk activities may indeed represent attempts by males to signal costly behavior, these activities contribute very little to the faunal and other residues that accumulate in the archaeological record; and (3) the theoretical underpinnings of costly signaling explicitly preclude the type of runaway positive feedback loops that Hildebrandt and McGuire implicate as the driving force behind an apparent cultural collapse in the Great Basin at the end of the Middle Archaic.

Résumé

Résumé

En varios papeles, McGuire y Hildebrandt recientes y sumamente provocativos (Hildebrandt y McGuire 2002, 2003; McGuire y Hildebrandt 2005) ha ayudado a introducir señalar costoso la teoría en la arqueología Americana. Mientras sus esfuerzos son recomendables, nosotros nos sentimos que sus reinterpretaciones de prehistoria norteamericana occidental exagera la influencia probable de señalar costoso en el registro arqueológico. Sólo dejando pasar un cuerpo considerable de la literatura etnográfica que indica un papel más limitado para señalar es ellos capaz de caracterizar Gran Palangana y cazadores de California motivaron como más por el persecución del prestigio que provisioning. Ofrecemos tres desafíos específicos a sus modelos: (1) mientras McGuire y Hildebrandt tratan el asunto como decidido, las relaciones entre adentrarse, provisioning, el prestigio y la salud, todavía son refutados activamente entre investigadores; (2) mientras los estudios etnográficos sugieren que algunos tipos de cazar y el bajo-regreso, las actividades de alto riesgo pueden representar verdaderamente las tentativas por males para señalar la conducta costosa, estas actividades contribuyen muy poco al faunal y otros residuos de que acumulan en el registro arqueológico; (3) los apuntalamientos teóricos Señalar impide explícitamente el tipo de lazos de reacción que Hildebrandt positivos fugitivos y McGuire implican como lafuerza que maneja detrás de un desplome cultural aparente en la Gran Palangana a fines del Mediano Arcaico.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , April 2007 , pp. 349 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bamforth, Douglas B. 2002 Evidence and Metaphor in Evolutionary Archaeology. American Antiquity 67:435–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L. 1991 Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L. 1994 How, When, and Why Numic Spread. In Across the West: Human Population Movement and the Expansion of the Numa, edited by D. B. Madsen and D. Rhode, pp. 44–55. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L., and Baumhoff, Martin A. 1982 The Numic Spread: Great Basin Cultures in Competition. American Antiquity 47:485–503.Google Scholar
Bird, Douglas W., and O’Connell, James F. 2006 Behavioral Ecology and Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 14:143–188.Google Scholar
Bliege Bird, Rebecca, and Bird, Douglas W. 1997 Delayed Reciprocity and Tolerated Theft: The Behavioral Ecology of Food-Sharing Strategies. Current Anthropology 38:49–78.Google Scholar
Bliege Bird, Rebecca, and Smith, Eric Alden 2005 Signaling Theory, Strategic Interaction, and Symbolic Capital. Current Anthropology 46:221–248.Google Scholar
Bliege Bird, Rebecca, Smith, Eric Alden, and Bird, Douglas W. 2001 The Hunting Handicap: Costly Signaling in Human Foraging Strategies. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 50:9–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broughton, Jack M, and Bayham, Frank E. 2003 Showing Off, Foraging Models, and the Ascendance of Large-Game Hunting in the California Middle Archaic. American Antiquity 68:783–789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwin, Charles 1998 [1874] The Descent of Man. Prometheus Books, New York.Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard 1976 The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Fisher, Ronald A. 1958 Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Revised edition, Dover, New York.Google Scholar
Grafen, Alan 1984 Natural Selection, Kin Selection and Group Selection. In Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 2nd ed., edited by J. R. Krebs and N. B. Davies, pp. 62–84. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.Google Scholar
Grafen, Alan 1990a Sexual Selection Unhandicapped by the Fisher Process. Journal of Theoretical Biology 144:473–516.Google Scholar
Grafen, Alan 1990b Biological Signals as Handicaps. Journal of Theoretical Biology 144:517–546.Google Scholar
Gurven, M., Hill, Kim, Kaplan, Hillard, Hurtado, Ana, and Lyles, Richard 2000 Food Transfers Among Hiwi Foragers of Venezuela: Tests of Reciprocity. Human Ecology 28:171–218.Google Scholar
Hawkes, Kristen 1990 Why Do Men Hunt? Benefits for Risky Choice. In Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies, edited by E. Cashdan, pp. 145–166. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Hawkes, Kristen 1991 Showing Off: Tests of an Hypothesis about Men’s Foraging Goals. Ethology and Sociobiology 12:29–54.Google Scholar
Hawkes, Kristen 1993 Why Hunter-Gatherers Work: An Ancient Version of the Problem of Public Goods. Current Anthropology 34:341–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, Kristen 1996 Foraging Differences Between Men and Women: Behavioural Ecology of the Sexual Division of Labour. In Power, Sex, and Tradition: The Archaeology of Human Ancestry, edited by S. Shennan and J. Steele, pp. 283–305. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Hawkes, Kristen 2000 Hunting and the Evolution of Egalitarian Societies: Lessons from the Hadza. In Hierarchies in Action: Cui Bono? edited by M. W. Diehl, pp. 59–83. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 27. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Hawkes, Kristen, and Bird, Rebecca Bliege 2002 Showing Off, Handicap Signaling, and the Evolution of Men’s Work. Evolutionary Anthropology 11:58–67.Google Scholar
Hawkes, Kristen, O’Connell, James. F., and Blurton Jones, Nicholas G. 1991 Hunting Income Patterns among the Hadza: Big Game, Common Goods, Foraging Goals and the Evolution of the Human Diet. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, series B, 334:243–251.Google Scholar
Hawkes, Kristen, O’Connell, James. F., and Blurton Jones, Nicholas G. 2001 Hunting and Nuclear Families: Some Lessons from the Hadza about Men’s Work. Current Anthropology 42:681–709.Google Scholar
Heath, Kathleen Marie, and Hadley, Craig 1998 Dichotomous Male Reproductive Strategies in a Poly gynous Human Society: Mating versus Parental Effort. Current Anthropology 39:369–374.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, William R., and Jones, Terry L. 1992 Evolution of Marine Mammal Hunting: A View from the California and Oregon Coasts. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 11:360–401.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, William R., and Jones, Terry L. 2002 Depletion of Prehistoric Pinniped Populations Along the California and Oregon Coasts: Were Humans the Cause? In Wilderness and Political Ecology: Aboriginal Influences and the Original State of Nature, edited by Charles E. Kay and Randy T. Simmons, pp. 72–110. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, William R., and McGuire, Kelly R. 2002 The Ascendance of Hunting during the California Middle Archaic: An Evolutionary Perspective. American Antiquity 67:231–256.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, William R., and McGuire, Kelly R. 2003 Large-Game Hunting, Gender-Differentiated Work Organization, and the Role of Evolutionary Ecology in California and Great Basin Prehistory: A Reply to Broughton and Bayham. American Antiquity 68:790–792.Google Scholar
Hill, Kim, and Kaplan, Hillard 1993 On Why Male Foragers Hunt and Share Food. Current Anthropology 34:701–710.Google Scholar
Hill, Kim, Kaplan, Hillard, Hawkes, Kristen and Magdalena Hurtado, A. 1987 Foraging Decisions among Aché Hunter-Gatherers: New Data and Implications for Optimal Foraging Models. Ethnology and Sociobiology 8:1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hocket, Bryan 2005 Middle and Late Holocene Hunting in the Great Basin: A Critical Review of the Debate and Future Prospects. American Antiquity 70:713–731.Google Scholar
Hocket, Bryan, and Haws, Jonathan 2003 Nutritional Ecology and Diachronic Trends in Paleolithic Diet and Health. Evolutionary Anthropology 12:211–216.Google Scholar
Hocket, Bryan, and Haws, Jonathan 2005 Nutritional Ecology and the Human Demography of Neanderthal Extinction. Quaternary International 137:21–34.Google Scholar
Jochim, Michael A. 1988 Optimal Foraging and the Division of Labor. American Anthropologist 90:130–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Terry L., and Hildebrandt, William R. 1995 Reasserting a Prehistoric Tragedy of the Commons: Reply to Lyman. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 14:78–98.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Hillard, and Hill, Kim 1985a Food Sharing among Ache Foragers: Tests of Explanatory Hypotheses. Current Anthropology 26:223–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Hillard, and Hill, Kim 1985b Hunting Ability and Reproductive Success among Male Aché Foragers: Preliminary Results Current Anthropology 26:131–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Hillard, Hill, Kim, and Magdalena Hurtado, A. 1990 Risk, Foraging and Food Sharing among the Aché. In Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies, edited by E. Cashdan, pp. 107–143. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Lee, Richard B. 1979 The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. Lee 2003 Pinniped Behavior, Foraging Theory, and the Depression of a Local Population on the Southern Northwest Coast of North America. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22:376–388.Google Scholar
McGuire, Kelly R., and Hildebrandt, William R. 2005 Re-Thinking Great Basin Foragers: Prestige Hunting and Costly Signaling during the Middle Archaic Period. American Antiquity 70:695–712.Google Scholar
Marlowe, Frank W. 1999 Showoffs or Providers? The Parenting Effort of Hadza Men. Evolution and Human Behavior 20:391–404.Google Scholar
Marlowe, Frank W. 2003 A Critical Period for Provisioning by Hadza Men: Implications for Pair Bonding. Evolution and Human Behavior 24:217–229.Google Scholar
Maynard Smith, John 1978 Optimization Theory in Evolution. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 9:31–56.Google Scholar
Rick, Torben C. 2004 Daily Activities, Community Dynamics, and Historical Ecology on California’s Northern Channel Islands. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene.Google Scholar
Smith, Eric Alden 2004 Why do Good Hunters Have Higher Reproductive Success? Human Nature 15:343–364.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, Eric Alden, and Bliege Bird, Rebecca L. 2000 Turtle Hunting and Tombstone Opening: Public Generosity as Costly Signaling. Evolution and Human Behavior 21:245–261.Google Scholar
Smith, Eric Alden, Bliege Bird, Rebecca L., and Bird, Doug W. 2003 The Benefits of Costly Signaling: Meriam Turtle Hunters. Behavioral Ecology 14:116–126.Google Scholar
Sosis, Richard 2000 Costly Signaling and Torch Fishing on Ifaluk Atoll. Evolution and Human Behavior 21:223–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trigger, Bruce G. 1989 A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Trivers, Robert L. 1972 Parental Investment and Sexual Selection. In Sexual Selection and the Decent of Man 1871–1971, edited by Bernard Campbell, pp. 136–179. Aldine Publishing, Chicago.Google Scholar
Voland, Eckart 1998 Evolutionary Ecology of Human Reproduction. Annual Review of Anthropology 27:347–374.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiessner, Polly 2002 Hunting, Healing, and Hxaro Exchange: A Long-Term Perspective on !Kung (Ju/’ hoansi) Large-game Hunting. Evolution and Human Behavior 23:407–436.Google Scholar
Wood, Brian 2006 Prestige or Provisioning? A Test of Foraging Goals among the Hadza. Current Anthropology 47:383–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Brian and Hill, Kim 2000 A Test of the “Showing-Off” Hypothesis with Ache Hunters. Current Anthropology 41:124–125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahavi, Amotz 1975 Mate Selection—A Selection for a Handicap. Journal of Theoretical Biology 53:205–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed