Age-dependency in hunting ability among the Ache of eastern Paraguay

Robert Walker, Kim Hill, Hillard Kaplan, Garnett McMillan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

165 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper examines changes in hunting ability across the lifespan for the Ache of eastern Paraguay. Hunting ability is decomposed into two components-finding prey and probability of kill upon encounter- and analyzed for important prey species. Results support the argument that skill acquisition is an important aspect of the human foraging niche with hunting outcome variables reaching peaks surprisingly late in life, significantly after peaks in strength. The implications of this study are important for modeling the role of the human foraging niche in the co-evolution of various outstanding human life history characteristics such as large brains, long lifespans, and extended juvenile periods.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)639-657
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of human evolution
Volume42
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Ache hunters
  • Human life history evolution
  • Strength and skill

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Anthropology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Age-dependency in hunting ability among the Ache of eastern Paraguay'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this