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Risk of Resource Failure and Toolkit Variation in Small-Scale Farmers and Herders

Resource type
Date created
2012
Authors/Contributors
Abstract
Recent work suggests that global variation in toolkit structure among hunter-gatherers is driven by risk of resource failure such that as risk of resource failure increases, toolkits become more diverse and complex. Here we report a study in which we investigated whether the toolkits of small-scale farmers and herders are influenced by risk of resource failure in the same way. In the study, we applied simple linear and multiple regression analysis to data from 45 small-scale food-producing groups to test the risk hypothesis. Our results were not consistent with the hypothesis; none of the risk variables we examined had a significant impact on toolkit diversity or on toolkit complexity. It appears, therefore, that the drivers of toolkit structure differ between hunter-gatherers and small-scale food-producers.
Document
Published as
Collard M, Ruttle A, Buchanan B, O’Brien MJ (2012) Risk of Resource Failure and Toolkit Variation in Small-Scale Farmers and Herders. PLoS ONE 7(7): e40975. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0040975
Publication title
PLoS ONE
Document title
Risk of Resource Failure and Toolkit Variation in Small-Scale Farmers and Herders
Date
2012
Volume
7
Issue
7
Publisher DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0040975
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author(s).
Permissions
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit this work under the following conditions: You must give attribution to the work (but not in any way that suggests that the author endorses you or your use of the work); You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
Scholarly level
Peer reviewed?
Yes
Language
English
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journal.pone_.0040975.pdf 408.82 KB

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