Food Redistribution Among Prehistoric Pueblo Groups

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The redistribution of food is viewed as one behavioral strategy that minimized the risk of resource uncertainty in the prehistoric Southwest. This paper discusses food redistribution among the prehistoric people of the Mogollon Rim and Colorado Plateau and considers the maximum distances over which food could have been efficiently redistributed on a regular basis. The efficiency of moving food over different distances by foot is determined through a transportation efficiency ratio. This ratio provides an index of cost/efficiency by dividing the caloric yield of food transported by the transportation costs. The maximum size of a redistribution network is determined by comparing the transportation efficiency ratio with the techno-environmental efficiency ratio (Harris 1971). An estimate of the maximum range of a prehistoric Southwestern redistribution network is provided.