Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/12252
Title: Colonising Sahul
Contributor(s): Moore, Mark  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2012
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/12252
Abstract: A vague notion of 'wanderlust' seems to be the driving force in many narratives about hominin migration (e.g. Dennell and Roebroeks 2005), but, true to the zeitgeist, O'Connell and Allen have shown us that wanderlust is all about food. The strength of behavioural ecology is the explicit nature of the underlying assumptions and the clear connection between forager theory, predictive statements and archaeological evidence. Summarising several optimal foraging models, O'Connell and Allen conclude that optimising hominins are pulled from patch to patch by the serial depletion of highest ranked resources. The logic of their scenario is straightforward: the archaeological record shows that humans colonised Wallacea and Sahul, and the theoretical model stipulates that forager movement is linked to exploitation of highest ranked prey, therefore colonisation was driven by the pursuit of highest ranked prey. One might question whether certain assumptions of optimal foraging models - for example, that foragers have perfect resource knowledge and the perfect ability to exploit it - would apply to the first wave of colonists to cross the Wallace Line, but the successful colonisation itself might be de facto evidence that the costs of imperfect knowledge were not prohibitively high. O'Connell and Allen posit that, after colonisation, movement between patches in pursuit of highest ranked prey became the norm as foragers made nearly-continuous readjustment to unstable climatic conditions.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Grant Details: ARC/DP1096558
Source of Publication: Australian Archaeology, v.74, p. 27-28
Publisher: Australian Archaeological Association Inc
Place of Publication: Australia
ISSN: 2470-0363
0312-2417
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 210103 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas
210101 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Archaeology
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 430102 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas
450101 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander archaeology
450102 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artefacts
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 950503 Understanding Australias Past
970121 Expanding Knowledge in History and Archaeology
950599 Understanding Past Societies not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 130703 Understanding Australia’s past
280114 Expanding knowledge in Indigenous studies
280113 Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Publisher/associated links: http://www.australianarchaeology.com/journal/vol74-forum-comments/
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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