Population size predicts technological complexity in oceania

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences Vol/Iss. 277(1693) The Royal Society Published In Pages: 2559-2564
By Kline, Michelle A., Boyd, Robert

Hypothesis

Average tool complexity will be higher in larger populations than in smaller populations (2561).

Note

Marine Biodiversity, Importance of Fishing, Seasonality and Productivity, Vulnerability to Catastrophic Storms, and Drought Risk were all regressed individually along with population size to ascertain their effects on the correlation between tool repertoire size and population size. The coefficients for these "control" variables were small and none were close to significant.

Test

Test NameSupportSignificanceCoefficientTail
Multiple regressionSupportedRanged from p = 0.003 to p = 0.143Ranged from beta = 0.514 to beta = 0.907UNKNOWN