Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-23-2024
Journal / Book Title
Nature
Abstract
The record of past human adaptations provides crucial lessons for guiding responses to crises in the future1–3. To date, there have been no systematic global comparisons of humans’ ability to absorb and recover from disturbances through time4,5. Here we synthesized resilience across a broad sample of prehistoric population time–frequency data, spanning 30,000 years of human history. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of population decline show that frequent disturbances enhance a population’s capacity to resist and recover from later downturns. Land-use patterns are important mediators of the strength of this positive association: farming and herding societies are more vulnerable but also more resilient overall. The results show that important trade-offs exist when adopting new or alternative land-use strategies.
DOI
10.1038/s41586-024-07354-8
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Riris, Philip; Silva, Fabio; Crema, Enrico; Palmisano, Alessio; Robinson, Erick; Siegel, Peter E.; French, Jennifer C.; Jørgensen, Erlend Kirkeng; Maezumi, Shira Yoshi; Solheim, Steinar; Bates, Jennifer; Davies, Benjamin; Oh, Yongje; and Ren, Xiaolin, "Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations" (2024). Department of Anthropology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 79.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/anthropology-facpubs/79
Rights
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Published Citation
Riris, P., Silva, F., Crema, E., Palmisano, A., Robinson, E., Siegel, P. E., French, J. C., Jørgensen, E. K., Maezumi, S. Y., Solheim, S., Bates, J., Davies, B., Oh, Y., & Ren, X. (2024). Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations. Nature, 629(8013), 837–842. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07354-8