Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

Beginning with Emlen (1966) and MacArthur and Pianka (1966) and extending through the last ten years, several authors have sought to predict the foraging behavior of animals by means of mathematical models. These models are very similar,in that they all assume that the fitness of a foraging animal is a function of the efficiency of foraging measured in terms of some "currency" (Schoener, 1971) -usually energy- and that natural selection has resulted in animals that forage so as to maximize this fitness. As a result of these similarities, the models have become known as "optimal foraging models"; and the theory that embodies them, "optimal foraging theory." The situations to which optimal foraging theory has been applied, with the exception of a few recent studies, can be divided into the following four categories: (1) choice by an animal of which food types to eat (i.e., optimal diet); (2) choice of which patch type to feed in (i.e., optimal patch choice); (3) optimal allocation of time to different patches; and (4) optimal patterns and speed of movements. In this review we discuss each of these categories separately, dealing with both the theoretical developments and the data that permit tests of the predictions. The review is selective in the sense that we emphasize studies that either develop testable predictions or that attempt to test predictions in a precise quantitative manner. We also discuss what we see to be some of the future developments in the area of optimal foraging theory and how this theory can be related to other areas of biology. Our general conclusion is that the simple models so far formulated are supported are supported reasonably well by available data and that we are optimistic about the value both now and in the future of optimal foraging theory. We argue, however, that these simple models will requre much modification, espicially to deal with situations that either cannot easily be put into one or another of the above four categories or entail currencies more complicated that just energy.

Citation classic - optimal foraging - a selective review of theory and tests

One of the strengths of scientific inquiry is that it can progress with any mixture of empiricism, intuition, and formal theory that suits the convenience of the investigator. Many sciences develop for a time as exercises in description and empirical generalization. Only later do they acquire reasoned connections within themselves and with other branches of knowledge. Many things were scientifically known of human anatomy and the motions of the planets before they were scientifically explained.

The psychological foundations of culture.

The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior.

The human mind is the most complex natural phenomenon humans have yet encountered, and Darwin's gift to those who wish to understand it is a knowledge of the process that created it and gave it its distinctive organization: evolution. Because we know that the human mind is the product of the evolutionary process, we know something vitally illuminating: that, aside from those properties acquired by chance, the mind consists of a set of adaptations, designed to solve the long-standing adaptive problems humans encountered a s hunter-gatherers. Such a vie w i s uncontroversial to mos t behavioral scientists when applied to topics such as vision or balance. Yet adaptationist approaches to human psychology are considered radical—o r even transparently false—when applie d t o mos t other area s of human thought and action , especially social behavior. Nevertheless, the logic of the adaptationist postion is completely general, and a dispassionate evaluatio n of its implications leads to the expectation that humans should have evolved a constellation of cognitive adaptations to social life. Our ancestors have been members of social groups and engaging in social interactions for millions and probably tens of millions of years. To behave adaptively, they not only needed to construct a spatial map of the objects disclosed to them by their retinas, but a social map of the persons, relationships, motives, interactions, emotions, and intentions that made up their social world. Our view, then, is that humans have a faculty of social cognition, consisting of a rich collection o f dedicated, functionally specialized, interrelated modules (i.e., func tionally isolable subunits, mechanisms, mental organs, etc.), organized to collectively guide thought and behavior with respect to the evolutionarily recurrent adaptive problems posed by the social world. Nonetheless, if such a view has merit, it not only must be argued for on theoretical grounds—however compelling—but also must be substantiated by experimental evidence, as well as by converging lines of empirical support drawn from related fields such as neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. The 3

Cognitive adaptations for social exchange.

This paper aims to describe and explain aspects of food sharing among Ache hunter-gatherers of eastern Paraguay. Food sharing has been widely held to be a fundamental feature of the hunting and gathering way of life and has been hypothesized to have played a major role in the evolution of language, intelligence, and the sexual division of labor. The very general question that guided the research is: What factors are responsible for the evolution of food sharing among adult conspecifics, and how can we account for the variation among groups in the extent to which food is shared? Five alternative hypotheses concerning the evolution of adult-adult food sharing are reviewed and analyzed in terms of the competing predictions they generate. These hypotheses invoke (1) kin selection, (2) tolerated theft, (3) temporal reciprocity, (4) cooperative acquisition of food resources, and (5) conservation of resources. For meat and honey, the resources the Ache share most, the data conform to the predictions of the toler...

Food Sharing Among Ache Foragers: Tests of Explanatory Hypotheses [and Comments and Reply]

Some hunter-gatherer societies (the Indians of California and of the Northwest Coast, for instance) depart significantly from the commonly accepted definition. This paper demonstrates that in such societies the economic structure is based on seasonal and intensive storage of major food resources. The societies presenting this type of economic structure are (1) sedentary, (2) high-density, and (3) prone to socioeconomic inequality. These three characteristics set California and Northwest Coast Indian societies well apart from the small, nomadic and egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies traditionally considered typical and challenge the hypothesis that the adoption of agriculture represents in itself a major milestone in the social history of humanity. The three features outlined above are found in both agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies in which resources are systematically accumulated. Thus it seems that the adoption of agriculture is less significant for social evolution than the emergence of an ...

Brian Hayden

Papers

Food Sharing Among Ache Foragers: Tests of Explanatory Hypotheses [and Comments and Reply]

The Significance of Food Storage Among Hunter-Gatherers: Residence Patterns, Population Densities, and Social Inequalities [and Comments and Reply]

Nimrods, Piscators, Pluckers, and Planters: The Emergence of Food Production

Feasts : archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power

Where the garbage goes: Refuse disposal in the Maya Highlands