Optimal Foraging and Agricultural Origins - Optimal...

Optimal Foraging and Agricultural Origins
A detailed argument along these lines has been developed by Bruce Winterhalder &
Carol Goland (1997; summarized in Winterhalder & Kennett 2006)
Winterhalder-Goland model explicitly incorporates optimal foraging theory (in form of
prey-choice/diet-breadth model) along with population ecology and archaeological
information on characteristics of many proto-domesticates
According to this model, since climate deterioration or resource depletion would favor a
wider diet breadth (as per prey-choice model), in particular times & places this might
mean incorporation of low-ranked but abundant resources (e.g., PDs) into the diet; if
this diet-breadth expansion persisted, it could then be followed by intentional or
coevolutionary enhancement of yield (i.e, genetic modification of PD into a domesticate)
Although the initial stages of this process would look like just more of the same
(foraging intensification), those PDs that were abundant ( not same as high-ranked or
efficient) and capable of rapid reproduction (e.g., weedy plants) might rapidly become