Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Five Simple Models

"[A] fine volume that does just what it claims to. The style is informal, often humorous, and it will clearly work well in a classroom of advanced undergraduates or graduate students. The flow and clarity of the discussions almost makes one forget that this is math that they're trying to master [...] [A]nyone with a serious interest in hunter-gatherers, prehistoric subsistence, and resource provisioning will want to own a copy."
– Mark E. Basgall in Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

"This book is the first of its kind to provide a suite of tools applicable to many ethnographic and archaeological foraging problems. Anyone [...] involved in human behavioral ecology should work through this book. It is certainly required reading for any student of the discipline, and as it finds its way into the classroom and onto the desks of practitioners, it is sure to become a classic."
– Brian F. Codding in California Archaeology

"[A]n excellent primer on a group of models that [...] played an important role in the development of hunter-gatherer and ecological studies in anthropology [...] The examples, sample problems, and touch of humor as the mod els are explained make the book ideal for use [...] with either advanced undergraduates, graduate students, or for anyone wishing for a quick reminder of the math behind the models."
– Susan K. Harris in American Antiquity

"[A] laboratory manual to teach mathematical models to people interested in Optimal Foraging Theory [...] [T]he book will be useful for graduate seminars to teach details of how foraging societies maximize returns in manipulating the variability in resources of their exploitation territories."
– Andrew B. Smith in Journal of Human Evolution

"[T]his [...] small book [...] could be used well as an adjunct or ancillary text for a n umber of different courses in quantitative methods, hunter-gatherers, or foraging economy [...] [I]t succeeds overall very well and very nicely in what it aims to do."
– Robert Whallon in Journal of Anthropological Research

"This book would make an excellent accompaniment to many anthropology and archaeology courses, both at high school and college levels [...] There is a lot of well-written material crammed into this little book! I highly recommend it for anyone interested not only directly with hunter-gatherer research, but for anyone who wonders how-we-know what we think we know about ancient day-to-day life."
– Ira R. Wishoff in The Dirt Brothers

"This volume presents exercises designed to convey foraging models in a hands-on manner. An excellent resource for upper-division undergraduate and graduate-level classes focused on topics ranging from analytical models in anthropology/archaeology to hunter-gatherers."
– Gary M. Feinman, The Field Museum

"Anyone who has tried to teach students the various models used in behavioral ecology will find this book a welcome relief. Written by an authority who understands both theory and application, the book's examples and exercises show the models' potentials and limitations. As a step-by-step guide, it is an indispensable supplement to a variety of classes."
– Robert L. Kelly, University of Wyoming

"A compact, consistently informative, and exemplary primer for beginners and experts alike. Bettinger's inviting and lucid style, multiple examples, and transparent math will make this short book an instant classic, the well-worn companion of anyone interested in prehistoric subsistence and lifeways."
– Bruce Winterhalder, University of California, Davis

"A pioneer of hunter-gatherer foraging theory, Robert Bettinger offers a primer on foraging models for students new to them, especially those with little mathematical training; he also addresses professional ethnographers, ethnologists, and archaeologists who know the principles but not the details of the models or how to apply them to specific cases. He covers diet breadth, optimal foraging with constraints (linear programming), front-loaded and back-loaded resources, technological investment, and field processing. All of these models have concrete test implications that invite application across a broad range of human behaviors. For each chapter he provides exercises and answers to them. There is no index."
– Reference and Research Book News