Demography and Evolutionary Ecology of Hadza Hunter-Gatherers

A detailed study of the Hadza hunter-gatherers, examining ecological and demographical factors impacting upon the population.

Nicholas Blurton Jones (Author)

9781107657052, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 June 2020

510 pages, 135 b/w illus. 39 tables
24.5 x 17 x 3 cm, 0.9 kg

The Hadza, an ethnic group indigenous to northern Tanzania, are one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer populations. Archaeology shows 130,000 years of hunting and gathering in their land but Hadza are rapidly losing areas vital to their way of life. This book offers a unique opportunity to capture a disappearing lifestyle. Blurton Jones interweaves data from ecology, demography and evolutionary ecology to present a comprehensive analysis of the Hadza foragers. Discussion centres on expansion of the adaptationist perspective beyond topics customarily studied in human behavioural ecology, to interpret a wider range of anthropological concepts. Analysing behavioural aspects, with a specific focus on relationships and their wider impact on the population, this book reports the demographic consequences of different patterns of marriage and the availability of helpers such as husbands, children, and grandmothers. Essential for researchers and graduate students alike, this book will challenge preconceptions of human sociobiology.

Preface and acknowledgements
Part I. Demography: 1. Introduction
2. Geography and ecology in the Eyasi basin
3. History of the Hadza and the Eyasi basin
4. Research strategy and methods
5. Migration and intermarriage. Are eastern Hadza a population?
6. Hadza regions. Do they contain sub-populations?
7. Fertility
8. Mortality
9. Testing the estimates of fertility and mortality
10. Hadza demography. A normal human demography sustained by hunting and gathering in sub-Saharan savanna
11. The Hadza and hunter-gatherer population dynamics
Part II. Applying the Demographic Data to Hadza Behavior and Biology: 12. Introduction to part two
13. The outcome variables: fertility, child survival, and reproductive success
14. Men and women's reputations as hunters, traders, arrow makers, and diggers
15. Marriage
16. Another dependent variable. Growth as a proxy for fitness
17. Inter-birth intervals
18. Grandmothers as helpers
19. Grandmothers and competition between the generations
20. Children as helpers
21. Husbands and fathers as helpers
22. Variation among hunter-gatherers. Evolutionary economics of monogamy, male competition, and the sharing ethic
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Animal behaviour [PSVP], Evolution [PSAJ], Biology, life sciences [PS], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Anthropology [JHM], Sociology & anthropology [JH]