Nonlinear scaling of space use in human hunter-gatherers

Use of space by both humans and other mammals should reflect underlying physiological, ecological, and behavioral processes. In particular, the space used by an individual for its normal activities should reflect the interplay of three constraints: (i) metabolic resource demand, (ii) environmental r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2007-03, Vol.104 (11), p.4765-4769
Main Authors: Hamilton, Marcus J, Milne, Bruce T, Walker, Robert S, Brown, James H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anthropology
Behavior
Biological Sciences
Conservation of Natural Resources
Diet - ethnology
Ecology
Ecosystem
Energy resources
Environment
Food Supply
Foraging
Geography
Human ecology
Humans
Hunter gatherers
Hunting
Metabolism
Models, Biological
Models, Statistical
Models, Theoretical
Natural resources
Population Density
Population ecology
Population size
Social networks
Social Sciences
Terrestrial ecosystems
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Summary:Use of space by both humans and other mammals should reflect underlying physiological, ecological, and behavioral processes. In particular, the space used by an individual for its normal activities should reflect the interplay of three constraints: (i) metabolic resource demand, (ii) environmental resource supply, and (iii) social behaviors that determine the extent to which space is used exclusively or shared with other individuals. In wild mammals, there is an allometric scaling relation between the home range of an individual and its body size: Larger mammals require more space per individual, but this relation is additionally modified by productivity of the environment, trophic niche, sociality, and ability to defend a territory [Kelt DA, Van Vuren D (1999) Ecology 80: 337-340; Kelt DA, Van Vuren D (2001) Am Nat 157:637-645; Haskell JP, Ritchie ME, Olff H (2002) Nature 418:527-530; Damuth J (1987) Biol J Linn Soc 31:193-246; Damuth J (1981) Nature 290:699-700; and other previously published work]. In this paper we show how similar factors affect use of space by human hunter-gatherers, resulting in a nonlinear scaling relation between area used per individual and population size. The scaling exponent is less than one, so the area required by an average individual decreases with increasing population size, because social networks of material and information exchange introduce an economy of scale.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0611197104