An individual-based comparative advantage model: did economic specialization mediate the fluctuating climate of the late Pleistocene during the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans?
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Smith, Ronald F.. An individual-based comparative advantage model: did economic specialization mediate the fluctuating climate of the late Pleistocene during the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans?. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3RX9CJC
TitleAn individual-based comparative advantage model: did economic specialization mediate the fluctuating climate of the late Pleistocene during the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans?
DescriptionAnthropologists continue to debate the grounds for the survival of anatomically modern humans and the demise of the Neanderthals. One important distinction between the two groups may be the level of economic cooperation. I present a model for quantifying the benefits of within-group economic cooperation by examining all facets of productive, economic activity critical to survival in the fluctuating climate of Europe at the time of the transition from Neanderthals to Early Modern humans. The model's decision making engine is based on David Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage. Data from the prehistoric archaeological and physical anthropological records define the main economic parameters of the model: group size, task repertoire, and individual skill variation. Settlement patterns for both groups are based on individual site data, climate, and periods of occupation. Climate records, derived from ice-cores, terrestrial cores, and paleoclimate reconstructions define the climatic input for the model.
The model presented here covers new ground in that it addresses within-group individual skills across all tasks critical to survival, and not just foraging. It addresses the impact on individual and group survival, and it illustrates the importance of diversity and cooperation in stressful, climatic situations.
The archaeological data suggests that early modern humans performed a wider range of activities and tasks, congregated in larger groups, and possibly had a more diverse range of skills than Neanderthals. The model shows that all members of the group benefit when each task is assigned to that individual most proficient in the performance of that task, and when the resulting outputs are equitably distributed among the group members: the benefits achieved through cooperation by the early moderns are in the range of 17-19%, and by Neanderthals in the range of 11-13%. Settlement patterns in Europe indicate that early moderns moved into higher latitudes and colder zones than Neanderthals, despite the fact that severe and abrupt climate swings occurred during this period. This implies that economic cooperative behavior might have been an important adaptive response to the deteriorating climate of the time, and that such behavior enabled the modern humans to out-survive the Neanderthals.