BURDEN TRANSPORT: WHEN, HOW AND HOW MUCH?

Abstract

Burden transport is a ubiquitous primate behavior. Modern humans, however, take this primate tendency and extend it to a behavioral repertoire that influences many of our daily activities and almost certainly helped shape our physical and behavioral form. I examine the transportation of food in the context of central place foraging, from the perspective of maximizing energy acquisition. A detailed model of the energetic cost of burden transport is presented and its sensitivity to the variables of body mass, burden mass, terrain, incline and velocity discussed.

Citation

Kramer, P.A. (2004), "BURDEN TRANSPORT: WHEN, HOW AND HOW MUCH?", Alvard, M. (Ed.) Socioeconomic Aspects of Human Behavioral Ecology (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 23), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 249-269. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-1281(04)23010-4