1981/03/01 by David W. Frayer · 80 citations
Social Sciences · #Archaeology #Computer science #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Geography #Language and cultural evolution #Mesolithic #Natural (archaeology) #Natural selection #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Selection (genetic algorithm) #Stone Age #Upper Paleolithic
paper · doi:10.1525/aa.1981.83.1.02a00040
published in American Anthropologist 83(1), 57-73 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1981/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Evidence for a relationship between hunting strategies and body size is examined for human skeletons dating to the European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Trends for reduced limb size and stature seem to be correlated with improvements in the types of weapons utilized and a shift from aggressive to more docile game. Although some of these observations fit the predictions of Brues concerning the spearman‐archer model, it is suggested that selection for reduced metabolic demands is a more plausible explanation for decrease in body size from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic . [Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, hunting, body size]