2026-04-21T00:28:05Zhttps://riubu.ubu.es/oai/request

oai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/63342024-05-10T11:49:56Zcom_10259_6336com_10259_6335com_10259.4_106com_10259_2604com_10259_3830com_10259_5086col_10259_6337col_10259_3832

00925njm 22002777a 4500 dc Ahedo García, Virginia author Zurro, Débora author Caro Saiz, Jorge author Galán Ordax, José Manuel author 2021-08 The transition to agriculture is regarded as a major turning point in human history. In the present contribution we propose to look at it through the lens of ethnographic data by means of a machine learning approach. More specifically, we analyse both the subsistence economies and the socioecological context of 1290 societies documented in the Ethnographic Atlas with a threefold purpose: (i) to better understand the variability and success of human economic choices; (ii) to assess the role of environmental settings in the configuration of the different subsistence economies; and (iii) to examine the relevance of fishing in the development of viable alternatives to cultivation. All data were extracted from the publicly available cross-cultural database D-PLACE. Our results suggest that not all subsistence combinations are viable, existing just a subset of successful economic choices that appear recurrently in specific ecological systems. The subsistence economies identified are classified as either primary or mixed economies in accordance with an information-entropy-based quantitative criterion that determines their degree of diversification. Remarkably, according to our results, mixed economies are not a marginal choice, as they constitute 25% of the cases in our data sample. In addition, fishing seems to be a key element in the configuration of mixed economies, as it is present across all of them. 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/10259/6334 10.1371/journal.pone.0254539 Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies