Risk-senstive adaptive tactics: Models and evidence from subsistence studies in biology and anthropology |
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Authors: | Bruce Winterhalder Flora Lu Bram Tucker |
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Institution: | (1) Curriculum in Ecology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 217 Miller Hall, Campus Box 3275, 27599 Chapel Hill, North Carolina;(2) Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Alumni Building, Campus Box 3115, 27599 Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
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Abstract: | Risk-sensitive analysis of subsistence adaptations is warranted when (i) outcomes are to some degree unpredictable and (ii)
they have nonlinear consequences for fitness and/or utility. Both conditions are likely to be common among peoples studied
by ecologicll anthropologists and archaeologists. We develop a general conceptual model of risk. We then review and summarize
the extensive empirical literatures from biology and anthropology for methodological insights and for their comparative potential.
Risk-sensitive adaptive tactics are diverse and they are taxonomically widespread. However, the anthropological literature
rarely makes use of formal models of risk-sensitive adaptation, while the biological literature lacks naturalistic observations
of risk-sensitive behavior. Both anthropology and biology could benefit from greater interdisciplinary exchange. |
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Keywords: | risk adaptation subsistence economics behavioral ecology |
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