Human Behavioral Ecology and Niche Construction

We examine the relationship between niche construction theory (NCT) and human behavioral ecology (HBE), two branches of evolutionary science that are important sources of theory in archeology. We distinguish between formal models of niche con-struction as an evolutionary process, and uses of niche construction to refer to a kind of human behavior. Formal models from NCT examine how environmental modifica-tion can change the selection pressures that organisms face. In contrast, formal models from HBE predict behavior assuming people behave adaptively in their local setting, and can be used to predict when and why people engage in niche construction. We emphasize that HBE as a field is much broader than foraging theory and can incorpo-rate social and cultural influences on decision-making. We demonstrate how these approaches can be formally incorporated in a multi-inheritance framework for evolu-tionary research, and argue that archeologists can best contribute to evolutionary the-ory by building and testing models that flexibly incorporate HBE and NCT elements.

Publication: Elspeth Ready, et al., Human behavioral ecology and niche construction, Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews (2023). DOI: 10.1002/evan.21885

Original Story Source: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology