COMPETITION FOR CARCASSES AND EARLY HOMINID BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY - A CASE-STUDY AND CONCEPTUAL-FRAMEWORK

The behavioral-ecological perspective provides paleoanthropology with the opportunity to uncover the course and causes of human behavioral evolution. At this time, however, there is no established conceptual framework for conducting behavioral-ecological studies of individuals of extinct hominid species. We provide such a framework by integrating two mutually reinforcing lines of inference currently pursued separately by paleoanthropologists: middle range research (defined broadly here to incorporate inferences based on archaeological, functional morphological, and paleoenvironmental data) and behavioral-ecological modelling. We argue that a testable and detailed behavioral ecology of prehistoric hominids must be grounded in such ecologically-oriented middle range research. We provide a zooarchaeological case study that recasts the current debates over carcass acquisition by early hominids and the socio-economic function of early archaeological sites within the framework provided by our behavioral-ecological approach. Specifically, we use the results of field studies and experiments to examine the ecological conditions and behavioral strategies that may have increased or decreased competition between hominids and carnivores for carcass foods. The case study generates testable hypotheses regarding the ecological causes and behavioral consequences of various foraging strategies that have been advanced for early hominids.