LAUSR

Archaeologists have been examining agricultural societies from an environmental perspective since at least the early twentieth century—study that was enhanced by the advent of new methodologies such as dendrochronology (Douglass 1929) and, more recently, by geographic information systems (Bevan and Lake 2013; Conolly and Lake 2006; Lock 2000) and computational modeling (d’Alpoim Guedes et al. 2016a; Gerbault et al. 2014). To date, many researchers, particularly computational modelers, have relied upon evolutionary approaches from human behavioral ecology (HBE) to understand agricultural systems. The optimality assumptions inherent in many HBE models are of demonstrable utility in seeking explanations for the origins of agriculture (Gremillion et al. 2014) and human behavior in agricultural systems (Bocinsky and Kohler 2016). However, some scholars have been concerned with the exclusion of human agency, thus proposing complementary approaches such as niche construction theory (Zeder 2012, 2016). They point out that human adaptations often include intentional and unintentional cultivation of food sources and maintenance of ecosystem services. We agree with other scholars that niche construction theory complements HBE models, in part, by revealing local historical trajectories (Broughton et al. 2010; O’Brien and Laland 2012). Niche construction theory is especially useful when applied in a comparative framework (Zeder 2014, 2016). While scholars have debated on whether an ecological perspective (Rindos 1984) or a cultural view of agriculture (Flannery 1986) is more appropriate, most scholars fall somewhere in between, such as studies on Prehispanic Pueblo societies (Kohler et al. 2012; also see Turner 1993 for development in Mayan archaeology). Agricultural niche models, such as those for maize (Zea mays) (Bocinsky and Kohler 2014); rice (Oryza sativa) (d’Alpoim Guedes et al. 2015); and millet (Setaria italica and Panicum miliaceum), wheat (Triticum aestivum), and barley (Hordeum vulgare) (d’Alpoim Guedes et al. 2016b), have been used to understand social, political, and cultural change (Bocinsky et al. 2016; Boyd and Richerson 1985; Gintis et al. 2015; Renfrew and Cherry 1986). Determining how people perceived and impacted landscapes within which they lived (landscape ecology) requires reconstruction of what an environment was like at a given time. Multiple lines of evidence are needed to reconstruct and understand past environments through a variety of fields such as geoarchaeology, geomorphology, palynology, hydrology, and paleoethnobotany.