This archaeological dissertation research project integrates a rigorous chronological framework, geochemical data, and subsistence data to evaluate dynamic interrelationships between foodways, the environment, and human population growth in prehistory. Specifically, this case study elucidates temporal variation in risk-reducing foraging behaviors relative to a period of significant and intrinsic population growth ca. 1600 cal B.P. on the Northern Channel Islands of California. I integrate the energetic focus of reproductive ecology with a behavioral ecological perspective to provide a unique framework for understanding prehistoric demographic shifts within foraging populations.
The outcome of this research includes the most complete integrated foodways research ever conducted along the central coast of California. The integration of a multiscalar chronological framework and multiple lines of subsistence data provides a unique methodological approach for investigating the role of seasonal subsistence stability in population regulation. Each line of evidence helps in unraveling a complex story of human occupation and foraging behavior at three archaeological sites that I excavated. A thorough and rigorous program of radiometric dating and Bayesian chronological models control the century-level resolution and site seasonality studies based on oxygen isotope analysis the provide seasonal resolution, necessary to infer diachronic shifts in mobility patterns. I also rely on and highlight the importance of analyzing and integrating both faunal and macrobotanical data in order to answer questions of resource exploitation and dietary sufficiency.
Together these diverse lines of mobility and subsistence data allow me to reconstruct significant diachronic changes in foraging behavior and evaluate these changes with respect to evidence of climate-induced environmental change and prehistoric population growth. These results suggest that prehistoric human population growth did not always instigate major shifts in food acquisition, but rather was, in some cases, a product of subtle changes in the type, quantity, and quality of food resources upon which human foragers relied. Although this research specifically evaluates dietary and foraging behaviors on Santa Cruz Island, the broad theoretical perspective that macro-scale population level shifts among hunter-gatherers may be an unintended outcome of subtle shifts in foraging behavior--related to a variety of social, environmental, or economic variables--that inform dynamic biological processes is widely applicable to hunter-gatherer studies. Ultimately, this research sheds new light on how significant demographic shifts occurred throughout human history, prior to the adoption of domesticated foods.
