The research problem is the impact of decision making and information sharing on hunter-gatherer subsistence and settlement. The problem is placed in context with a review of general hunter-gatherer models which finds that information has not been treated as a dynamic variable. Two approaches to decison making and information sharing--rational decision making and a man-environment learning model--are evaluated to identify their strengths and weaknesses. The man-environment learning model demonstrates a greater ability to incorporate anthropologically significant variables. Through a simulation approach, the man-environment learning model is then applied to four problem areas in regional subsistence and settlement--the role of coordinated regional settlement, aggregated versus dispersed settlement systems, coastal versus interior settlement, and hunter-gatherer settlement along an agricultural frontier. In each case the regional man-environment model provides insight into how information sharing and decision making mechanisms create variability in settlement and subsistence activities which non-learning subsistence and settlement models ignore.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-7698 |
| Date | 01 January 1981 |
| Creators | MOORE, JAMES ANTHONY |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds