scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

Niche Construction Theory in Archaeology: A Critical Review

04 Jun 2021-Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory (Springer US)-Vol. 28, Iss: 3, pp 925-955
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the claims of novelty and differences between niche construction theory and other approaches to conceptualizing anthropogenic ecosystem impacts and culture-evolution feedbacks, and argue that the diverse concepts currently included in the wide-reaching purview of NCT are not new.
Abstract: Over the past decade, niche construction theory (NCT) has been one of the fastest-growing theories or scholarly approaches in the social sciences, especially within archaeology. It was proposed in the biological sciences 25 years ago and is often referred to as a neglected evolutionary mechanism. Given its rapid acceptance by the archaeological community, it is important that scholars consider how it is being applied and look for discrepancies between applications of the concept. Many critical discussions of NCT have already been published, but most of them are in biology journals and may be overlooked by scholars in the social sciences. In this manuscript, my goal is to synthesis the criticisms of NCT, better allowing archaeologists to independently evaluate its usefulness. I focus on the claims of novelty and differences between NCT and other approaches to conceptualizing anthropogenic ecosystem impacts and culture-evolution feedbacks. I argue that the diverse concepts currently included in the wide-reaching purview of NCT are not new, but the terminology is and may be useful to some scholars. If proponents of the concept are able to unify their ideas, it may serve a descriptive function, but given that lack of a testable explanatory mechanism, it does not have a clear heuristic function.

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In his new preface E. O. Wilson reflects on how he came to write this book: how "The Insect Societies" led him to write "Sociobiology", and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to writing another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities"In his new preface E. O. Wilson reflects on how he came to write this book: how "The Insect Societies" led him to write "Sociobiology," and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to write another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior.

946 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Sep 2010
TL;DR: First published in 1877, this volume is based on a series of papers concerning heterostylous plants (species which produce different types of flowers), providing the first functional interpretation of heterostyly.
Abstract: I n the foregoing chapters all the heterostyled plants known to me have been more or less fully described Several other cases have been indicated, especially by Professor Asa Gray and Kuhn, in which the individuals of the same species differ in the length of their stamens and pistils; but as I have been often deceived by this character taken alone, it seems to me the more prudent course not to rank any species as heterostyled, unless we have evidence of more important differences between the forms, as in the diameter of the pollen-grains, or in the structure of the stigma The individuals of many ordinary hermaphrodite plants habitually fertilise one another, owing to their male and female organs being mature at different periods, or to the structure of the parts, or to self-sterility, c and so it is with many hermaphrodite animals, for instance, land-snails or earth-worms ; but in all these cases any one individual can fully fertilise or be fertilised by any other individual of the same species This is not so with heterostyled plants: a long-styled, mid-styled or short-styled plant cannot fully fertilise or be fertilised by any other individual, but only by one belonging to another form Thus the essential character of plants belonging to the heterostyled class is that the individuals are divided into two or three bodies, like the males and females of dioecious plants or of the higher animals, which exist in approximately equal numbers and are adapted for reciprocal fertilisation

147 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used high-resolution satellite imagery and vegetative indices to reveal a legacy of human-landscape coevolution by comparing the characteristics of archaeological sites to those of locations with no documented archaeological materials.
Abstract: Archaeologists interested in the evolution of anthropogenic landscapes have productively adopted Niche Construction Theory (NCT), in order to assess long-term legacies of human-environment interactions. Applications of NCT have especially been used to elucidate co-evolutionary dynamics in agricultural and pastoral systems. Meanwhile, foraging and/or highly mobile small-scale communities, often thought of as less intensive in terms of land-use than agropastoral economies, have received less theoretical and analytical attention from a landscape perspective. Here we address this lacuna by contributing a novel remote sensing approach for investigating legacies of human-environment interaction on landscapes that have a long history of co-evolution with highly mobile foraging communities. Our study is centered on coastal southwest Madagascar, a region inhabited by foraging and fishing communities for close to two millennia. Despite significant environmental changes in southwest Madagascar’s environment following human settlement, including a wave of faunal extinctions, little is known about the scale, pace and nature of anthropogenic landscape modification. Archaeological deposits in this area generally bear ephemeral traces of past human activity and do not exhibit readily visible signatures of intensive land-use and landscape modification (e.g., agricultural modifications, monumental architecture, etc.). In this paper we use high-resolution satellite imagery and vegetative indices to reveal a legacy of human-landscape co-evolution by comparing the characteristics – vegetative productivity and geochemical properties – of archaeological sites to those of locations with no documented archaeological materials. Then, we use a random forest algorithm and spatial statistics to quantify the extent of archaeological activity and use this analysis to contextualize modern-day human-environment dynamics. Our results demonstrate that coastal foraging communities in southwest Madagascar over the past thousand years have extensively altered the landscape. Our study thus expands the temporal and spatial scales at which we can evaluate human-environment dynamics on Madagascar, providing new opportunities to study early periods of the island’s human history when mobile foraging communities were the dominant drivers of landscape change.

5 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review modern and fossil evidence for hypothesized bottom-up pathways and assess the ramifications of these processes for four key intervals in marine ecosystems: the Ediacaran-Cambrian (635-485 million years ago), the Ordovician (485-444 million years), the Devonian (419-359 million years) and the Mesozoic (252-66 million years).

5 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article , the authors synthesize the management practices used by small-scale societies of the South American savannas, compile the species that are the focus of direct management, and demonstrate the role of this management in maintaining the diverse ecosystems that make up the savanna.
Abstract: The tropical South American savannas have been occupied and manipulated by humans since the late Pleistocene. Ecologists consider that soils, hydrology, and seasonal precipitation influence the structure and composition of plants and the fire-proneness of savannas. However, the human influence on these dynamics remains uncertain. This is because little is known about human activities and what influence they have on the diversity of ecosystems. Considering this, our study sought to synthesize the management practices used by small-scale societies of the South American savannas, compile the species that are the focus of direct management, and demonstrate the role of this management in maintaining the diverse ecosystems that make up the savannas. We also set out to test the hypotheses that forms of management differ depending on the ecosystem and cultural matrices. To do so, we conducted a systematic review, in which we collected 51 articles with information about the management carried out by small-scale societies. From this, we categorized 10 management practices directed to ecosystems: protection of the ecosystem, enrichment of species, topographic changes, increased soil fertility, cleaning, prevention of fire, resource promotion, driving of game, swidden-fallow, and maintenance of ecosystem structure. We identified 19 native plant species whose populations are managed in-situ. These management practices have proven capable of keeping savanna and grassland ecosystems open and increasing the occurrence of forest ecosystems in the mosaic, as well as favoring plants of human interest in general. We note that there is a relationship between management practices with ecosystems and cultures, which suggests that both factors influence the management of landscapes. We conclude that management practices of small-scale societies are responsible for domesticating South American tropical savannas and that these savannas are composed of a mosaic of culturally constructed niches. The small-scale societies that inhabit these environments have important traditional ecological knowledge and strategies that enable the use, conservation, and restoration of savannas, extremely threatened by agribusiness today. Systematic Review Registration: [website], identifier [registration number].

2 citations

References
More filters
Book
01 Jan 1930

14,612 citations

Book
01 Jan 1976
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take up the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinship theory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences.
Abstract: Science need not be dull and bogged down by jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this entertaining look at evolution. The themes he takes up are the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinship theory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences. Readership: general; students of biology, zoology, animal behaviour, psychology.

10,880 citations

Book
01 Jan 1975
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of the concept of culture on the concepts of man and the evolution of mind in Bali has been discussed in the context of an interpretive theory of culture.
Abstract: Part I * Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture Part II * The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man * The Growth of Culture and the Evolution of Mind Part III * Religion As a Cultural System * Ethos, World View, and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols * Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example * Internal Conversion in Contemporary Bali Part IV * Ideology As a Cultural System * After the Revolution: The Fate of Nationalism in the New States * The Integrative Revolution: Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the New States * The Politics of Meaning * Politics Past, Politics Present: Some Notes on the Uses of Anthropology in Understanding the New States PART V * The Cerebral Savage: On the Work of Claude Lvi-Strauss * Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali * Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight

9,103 citations

Book
01 Jan 1963

7,870 citations