figshare
Browse

Supplementary material from "The global geography of human subsistence"

Posted on 2018-09-20 - 09:07
How humans obtain food has dramatically reshaped ecosystems and altered both the trajectory of human history and the characteristics of human societies. Our species' subsistence varies widely, from predominantly foraging strategies, to plant-based agriculture and animal husbandry. The extent to which environmental, social and historical factors have driven such variation is currently unclear. Prior attempts to resolve long-standing debates on this topic have been hampered by an over-reliance on narrative arguments, small and geographically narrow samples, and by contradictory findings. Here we overcome these methodological limitations by applying multi-model inference tools developed in biogeography to a global dataset (818 societies). Although some have argued that unique conditions and events determine each society's particular subsistence strategy, we find strong support for a general global pattern in which a limited set of environmental, social and historical factors predicts an essential characteristic of all human groups: how we obtain our food.

CITE THIS COLLECTION

or
Select your citation style and then place your mouse over the citation text to select it.

SHARE

email

Usage metrics

Read the peer-reviewed publication

Royal Society Open Science

AUTHORS (12)

Michael C. Gavin
Patrick H. Kavanagh
Hannah J. Haynie
Claire Bowern
Carol R. Ember
Russell D. Gray
Fiona M. Jordan
Kathryn R. Kirby
Geoff Kushnick
Bobbi S. Low
Bruno Vilela
Carlos A. Botero
need help?