https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rspb.2024.2553
Extensive locomotor versatility across a global
sample of hunter–gatherer societies
Abstract
Studies of hunter–gatherer locomotion inform
a wide range of academic fields, from human
behavioural ecology and hominin evolution to
sports science and evolutionary health. Despite
celebrated ethnographic examples of
hunter–gatherer locomotor proficiency in
running, climbing, swimming and diving, there
has been limited systematic analysis of
cross-cultural variation in hunter–gatherer
locomotor versatility. We conducted a
systematic cross-cultural analysis of
hunter–gatherer locomotion, coding locomotor
behaviour from over 900 ethnographic
documents. Our results indicated that high
levels of locomotor versatility are common
among hunter–gatherers, and that proficiency
of running, climbing, swimming and diving is
found in societies across the geographical
and ecological breadth of the sample. Each
locomotor modality was found to be relevant
not only to food acquisition but also in
leisure, ritual and violent conflict. Our
results also indicated the prevalence of
both male and female engagement within each
locomotor modality, with climbing being the
only modality to possess a notable bias
towards male engagement in a substantial
proportion of societies. The widespread
habituality and functional significance of
diverse locomotor proficiency in
hunter–gatherers suggests that locomotor
versatility represents a dimension of human
adaptive lability, playing a major role in
the ability of hunter–gatherersto thrive in
almost every global ecology.
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