Niche construction and the toolkits of hunter–gatherers and food producers

Biological Theory Vol/Iss. 6(3) Springer Netherlands Published In Pages: 251-259
By Collard, Mark, Buchanan, Briggs, Ruttle, April, O’Brien, Michael J.

Hypothesis

Toolkit complexity and diversity will be positively associated with population size (253).

Note

The relationship is significant among food-producing (i.e. pastoralist, horticulturalist, and agriculturalist) groups between population size and toolkit complexity (r-squared = 0.268) and diversity (r-sqaured = 0.236), but insignificant among hunter-gatherer societies.

Test

Test NameSupportSignificanceCoefficientTail
Linear regressionNot SupportedUNKNOWNUNKNOWNUNKNOWN

Variables

Variable NameVariable Type OCM Term(s)
Population SizeIndependentPopulation
Toolkit ComplexityDependentGeneral Tools
Toolkit DiversityDependentGeneral Tools