Causes of toolkit variation among hunter-gatherers: a test of four competing hypotheses

Abstract

Variation in subsistence-related material culture is an important aspect of the archaeological and ethnographic records, but the factors that are responsible for it remain unclear. Here, we examine this issue by evaluating four factors that may affect the diversity and complexity of the food-getting tools employed by hunter-gatherer populations: 1) the nature of the food resources; 2) risk of resource failure; 3) residential mobility; and 4) population size. We apply step-wise multiple regression analysis to technological and ecological data for 20 hunter-gatherer populations from several regions of the world. The analyses support the hypothesis that risk of resource failure has a significant impact on toolkit diversity and complexity. The results do not support the hypothesis that the characteristics of the resources exploited for food influence toolkit structure, or that residential mobility affects toolkit diversity and complexity. They are also not in line with the hypothesis that population size has an impact on toolkit structure. While our analyses appear to strongly support the suggestion that resource failure risk is the primary influence on hunter-gatherer toolkit structure, we argue that it would be premature to discount the other factors at this stage, and outline the steps that we believe need to be taken next.