An adaptive computer model for the evolution of plant collecting and early agriculture in the eastern valley of Oaxaca

Reynolds, Robert G. (Robert Gene)

essay

An adaptive computer model for the evolution of plant collecting and early agriculture in the eastern valley of Oaxaca

guilá naquitz : archaic foraging and early agriculture in oaxaca, mexico • Orlando • Published In 1986 • Pages: 439-500

By: Reynolds, Robert G. (Robert Gene).

Abstract
In many respects the showpiece of the volume, the first half of this chapter details Reynolds development of a computer program to model how an Archaic Period subsistence strategy might unfold over time given the proximity and productivity of resource zones as previously calculated from analysis of environmental survey data for the eastern Valley of Oaxaca. Climate and population are introduced as variables in multiple tests. The initial tests (Part 6) produce predictions for the late Paleo-Indian Period gathering-hunting economy as it would have pertained to stratigraphic zones E and D at Guilá Naquitz Cave—although outside the scope of this file Early Mesoamerican Archaic NY30), the results are applicable because this remained the greater part of the subsistence economy during the Early Archaic (stratigraphic zones C and B). The second set of tests (Part 8) model the development of incipient agriculture, comparing results with the pattern of change through time in the archaeological data from zones D through B, finding a rather good fit. In Part 9, the tests are restructured to explore results under different climatic regimes, and under varying rates of population increase. To summarize the results, year-to-year unpredictability in precipitation stimulated experimentation in strategies and scheduling of resource procurement during good (wet) years, leading most rapidly to both stable adaptations for hunting and gathering, and to a development of domesticated plants as dietary supplements. Long-term climatic variability and rapidly increasing population actually produce a more conservative response among the hypothetical band of Archaic inhabitants of the valley. (Development of the program, procedures of application, and conclusions based primarily on the statistical results are indexed, respectively, for THEORETICAL ORIENTATION IN RESEARCH AND ITS RESULTS [121], ORGANIZATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS OF RESEARCH [128] and/or EXPERIMENTAL DATA [1213]. Be forewarned that searching not on the latter [1213] will produce only a few tables of archaeological data.)

Theoretical orientation in research and its results

Organization and analysis of results of research

Sociocultural trends

Economic planning and development

Collecting

Tillage

Experimental data

Early Mesoamerican Archaic

HRAF PubDate

2000

Region

Middle America and the Caribbean