Adaptive cycles

Climatic forcing during the Younger Dryas (∼12.9–11.5 ky B.P.) event has become the theoretical basis to explain the origins of agricultural lifestyles in the Levant by suggesting a failure of foraging societies to adjust. This explanation however, does not fit the scarcity of data for predomestication cultivation in the Natufian Period. The resilience of Younger Dryas foragers is better illustrated by a concept of adaptive cycles within a theory of adaptive change (resilience theory). Such cycles consist of four phases: release/collapse (Ω); reorganization (α), when the system restructures itself after a catastrophic stimulus through innovation and social memory—a period of greater resilience and less vulnerability; exploitation (r); and conservation (K), representing an increasingly rigid system that loses flexibility to change. The Kebarans and Late Natufians had similar responses to cold and dry conditions vs. Early Natufians and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A responses to warm and wet climates. Kebarans and Late Natufians (α-phase) shifted to a broader-based diet and increased their mobility. Early Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A populations (r- and K-phases) had a growing investment in more narrowly focused, high-yield plant resources, but they maintained the broad range of hunted animals because of increased sedentism. These human adaptive cycles interlocked with plant and animal cycles. Forest and grassland vegetation responded to late Pleistocene and early Holocene climatic fluctuations, but prey animal cycles reflected the impact of human hunting pressure. The combination of these three adaptive cycles results in a model of human adaptation, showing potential for great sustainability of Levantine foraging systems even under adverse climatic conditions.

"Zusammenfassung:

Diese Arbeit verwendet das Konzept des „adaptiven Zyklus“ aus der sozio–ökologischen Resilience-Theorie um die Entwicklung archäologischer Kulturen zu beschreiben. Einleitend werden die vier Phasen (Wachstums-, Konservierungs-, Auflösungs-, und Reorganisationsphase) des „adaptiven Zyklus“ vorgestellt. Im zweiten Teil wird in einem Fallbeispiel die Entwicklung der Linearbandkeramik im Rheinland als „kultureller Zyklus“ dargestellt.


Abstract:

In this paper the concept of “adaptive cycles”, derived from the socio-ecological Resilience Theory, is employed to describe the
development of archaeological cultures. First the four phases (growth, conservation, release and re-organisation) of the “adaptive cycle” are introduced. In a case study the development of the Linearbandkeramik Culture in the Rhine-Basin is portrayed as a “cultural cycle”."

Abstract Climatic amelioration during the mid-Holocene Optimum is associated with hunter-gatherer occupation of remote sites in the Namib Desert. Subsequent changes in late Holocene site distribution suggest there were alternative responses to increasing aridity during this period. Abandonment or episodic occupation is evident in some areas, while others show an emphasis on mountain refugia and resource anomalies. Specialized coping strategies developed during this time allowed a broad re-occupation of the desert when conditions improved briefly during the Medieval Warm Epoch. Successive patterns of settlement and subsistence in the Namib Desert Holocene sequence exemplify the four moments of Holling's adaptive cycle.

Complex systems are dynamic and may show high levels of variability in both space and time. It is often difficult to decide on what constitutes a given complex system, i.e., where system boundaries should be set, and what amounts to substantial change within the system. We discuss two central themes: the nature of system definitions and their ability to cope

Climatic amelioration during the mid-Holocene Optimum is associated with hunter-gatherer occupation of remote sites in the Namib Desert. Subsequent changes in late Holocene site distribution suggest there were alternative responses to increasing aridity during this period. Abandonment or episodic occupation is evident in some areas, while others show an emphasis on mountain refugia and resource anomalies. Specialized coping strategies developed during this time allowed a broad re-occupation of the desert when conditions improved briefly during the Medieval Warm Epoch. Successive patterns of settlement and subsistence in the Namib Desert Holocene sequence exemplify the four moments of Holling's adaptive cycle.