Abstract
The spatial organization of hunter-gatherer sites has been the subject of numerous studies over the past 25 years (e.g., Yellen 1977; Binford 1978, 1987; Brooks and Yellen 1987; Hitchcock 1987; Whitelaw 1989 and others). These studies have yielded similar conclusions regarding observed cross-cultural and diachronic variability. The factors are ecological in their orientation. They are that (1) the threat of predators determines camp area in terms of mean hearth-to-hearth distance, or how dispersed a camp is; (2) subsistence strategies and the in-stitutionalization of sharing food (attributed to the size of hunted resources) influence site nucleation; (3) site population is a critical variable for determining camp size; and (4) seasonal and climatic differences create intragroup spatial variation (e.g., Whitelaw 1983; Gould and Yellen 1987; O’Connell 1987). The interrelationship of these four ecological factors is thought to explain the cross-culture variability that exists in the size and structure of modern hunter-gatherer camps, which is considered to be relevant to variability in past sites.
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Kent, S. (1991). The Relationship between Mobility Strategies and Site Structure. In: Kroll, E.M., Price, T.D. (eds) The Interpretation of Archaeological Spatial Patterning. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2602-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2602-9_3
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