StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Human Behavioral Ecology - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Human behavioral ecology (HBE) refers to the application of evolutionary biological models for studying behavioral differences in humans. The evolutionary approaches for studying human behavior fall under the categories of like sociobiology, human ethology, socioecology and psychology…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.2% of users find it useful
Human Behavioral Ecology
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Human Behavioral Ecology"

Download file to see previous pages

As a result a person develops behavioral strategies to solve different problems that are set by nature like arranging for food, mating, looking after the offspring and maintaining interactions with kin, offspring and other individual. HBE gained popularity between 1960s and the 1970s when there was growing emphasis on animal behavior and evolutionary biology. J.B.S Haldane a British evolutionary biologist by 1956 had already argued that differences of human behavior could be analyzed as responses of different individuals with similar genetic composition exposed to varying environments.

But the initial developments of HBE were in the field of foraging, drawn for the optimal foraging theory (OFT). This was because OFT was sophisticated and testable theory by 1980s and because much of the history of human species was spent as foragers. Foragers offer experiments for studying human behavioral variability. If people of today forage for living are constrained by aspects of ecology, then the variations in these limitations, the difficulties imposed by these constraints and the solutions that different individuals adopt to overcome the constraints are open to ethnographic observations.

The OFT consists of a groups of models addressing resource choice, time allocation and patch choice and diet breadth model that is most commonly used in studying humans. In accordance to this model, individual foragers select food resources that promise to provide maximum nutrition, by trading off the handling and search times associated with acquiring that food source. Foragers often bypass those food sources that yield low post encounter mean rate of nutrition when more profitable food sources are common, but they take a broader array of prey species when more profitable items are rare (Kaplan and Hill, 167-201).

Changes in subsistence pattern over a period time can be explained by changes in response to factors like technology, climate changes and availability of foreign imports. Thus new technology can either expand or contract the diet breadth (prey choice), depending on whether the cost of searching and handling the food resources have been affected. The diet breadth models even deals with archaeological deposits. For instance, deposits associated with societies that are on the brink of adopting agricultural activities, show increasing exploitation of previously unused sources, like plant food and seeds that require extensive processing.

The diet breadth model as such suggests that agriculture emerged many times in history as an alternative in response to decrease in encounter rate with higher ranked nutritional items. Failures to support the foraging model predictions have been just as intriguing as the successes. For instance despite what foraging model suggest that humans acquire food that maximizes their mean acquisition, men go for large preys like animals, ignoring the small food items like plants that are more profitable for increasing their mean acquisition rate.

Women on the other hand frequently do the opposite and favor small food items over large preys like animals. These observations have helped in generating two alternative hypotheses. The first hypotheses relates to the differences of constraints, that men maximize their nutritional acquisition through paying attention to the currency that gives more weightage to protein rather than

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Human Behavioral Ecology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/science/1505651-human-behavioral-ecology
(Human Behavioral Ecology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)
https://studentshare.org/science/1505651-human-behavioral-ecology.
“Human Behavioral Ecology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/science/1505651-human-behavioral-ecology.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Human Behavioral Ecology

Environment, or Heredity as a Contribution to Human Personality

Finally, rather than choosing three negative personality/behavioral traits to analyze, homosexuality was included as a means of potentially discussing the means by which genetic factors can impact in a neutral way in determining human behavior.... or purposes of societal integrity, perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of genetic predisposition, and the potential existence thereof, is with regards to whether or not individuals who commit a crime, or certain types of crime, are perhaps genetically predisposed to such a behavioral exhibition....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Science of Sex Appeal Being Biologically Imperative

In relation to Human Behavioral Ecology, it involves the evolution of human behaviour in regards the choices that people made before and the choices they make today.... Generally, human mate choice is a behavioral aspect of human beings.... Running head: human MATE CHOICE- SCIENCE OF SEX APPEAL BEING BIOLOGICALLY IMPERATIVE human Mate Choice- Science of Sex Appeal Being Biologically Imperative Insert Name Insert Grade Course Insert 14 November 2013 human Mate Choice- Science of Sex Appeal Being Biologically Imperative Biological imperatives are wants, drives, and needs required by human beings and other living organisms for them to continue living and to be in existence....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Evolution and culture

hellip; Sociobiology is closely related to the fields of Human Behavioral Ecology and evolutionary psychology, within the study of human societies.... Sociobiology is closely related to the fields of Human Behavioral Ecology and evolutionary psychology, within the study of human societies.... Some of the important theories and principles used and developed in sociobiology are Evolutionary psychology, behavioral ecology, and Gene- culture co evolutionary theory....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Processualism vs. Post-Processualism

In the paper “Processualism vs.... Post-Processualism” the author discusses different perspectives in order to help archeologists to carry out their studies effectively.... Archaeological theories are better characterized according to their approaches and foci.... hellip; This article studies the history of Indiana Jones using the two approaches....
9 Pages (2250 words) Research Paper

Humans in Biological and Behavioral Continuum

The paper "Humans In Biological And behavioral Continuum" discusses that even though human beings seem unique from other primate species, they all trace to common ancestry, with similar behaviors, and biological set up, though appearing in varying degrees.... Humans In Biological And behavioral ContinuumAll along, human beings have thought of themselves as being different from other animals in the animal kingdom.... The basis of this view is the clear marked biological and behavioral differences between human beings and other primates....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Behavior Theory and Human Behavior Explanation

nbsp;behavioral theory is an important scientific theory.... As a scientific theory, behavioral theory stresses that humans learn and develop certain traits through experience.... behavioral theory has attracted interest from a wide range of scholars since the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries.... In fact, scientists later adopted behavioral theory to study the behaviors of animals and apply them to humans to establish the relationship between humans and non-humans in a detailed manner (Hergenhahn, 2009)....
7 Pages (1750 words) Coursework

Human Behavior Effects on the Environment: a Struggle for Positive

Comparing to other species, human adaptation is a “unique cognitive and behavioral mechanism” that goes much long before any biological changes (DNA, etc.... The paper "human Behavior Effects on the Environment: a Struggle for Positive" highlights that when psychology interferes, it seems important to remember that normally humans behave in accordance with the information about the environment, but with a view of their high adaptation abilities too....
5 Pages (1250 words) Literature review

Wild Horses, Post and Feedback

My reaction to the documentary is framed in the behavioral ecology paradigm and its contribution towards the causation of behavior.... Going by the available behavioral ecology literature (e.... It is important to mention how the documentary captures the issue of foraging behavior within the context of behavioral ecology.... The recommendations include studying rangeland ecology, training the wild horses to interact with humans, and implementing adoption and rescue programs....
3 Pages (750 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us