Demographic conditions necessary to colonize new spaces: The case for early human dispersal in the Americas

LANATA, JOSÉ LUIS; MARTINO, LUIS; OSELLA, ANA; GARCÍA-HERBST, ARLEEN

World Archaeology

world archaeology

Año: 2008 vol. 40 p. 520 - 537

During the last decade or so, several authors have discussed human dispersal usingmathematical simulations in the Americas (Aoki 1993; Steele et al. 1995 and 1998; Steele2002; Anderson and Gillam 2000; Surovell 2000 and 2003), as well as of other parts ofthe world (Young and Bettinger 1992 and 1995; Young 2002; Ray 2003; Gkiasta et al.2004, Mithen and Reed 2002, Hughes et al. 2007, Pope and Terrell 2008). In this samejournal, Steele et al.’s (1998) presented a demographic model based on the notion ofdispersal is affected by environmental variability through time and space. We modifiedthe mathematical formulation to make the process more stochastic. This allows theexploration of different demographic conditions under what human dispersal could besuccessful to colonize the Americas. The simulations show two scenarios: 1) a singledispersal process with two major tempos, or 2) two different dispersal processes, onefrom Beringia to the Panama Isthmus, and the other for South America.KeywordsHuman dispersal; demographic modelling; Early Paleoindian; computer simulation.