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