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Lévy Flights in Dobe Ju/’hoansi Foraging Patterns

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Abstract

We analyzed data on Ju/’hoansi hunter–gatherer foraging patterns and found that their movements between residence camps can be modeled as a Lévy flight. The step lengths of their movements scale as a power law with an exponent μ = 1.97. Their wait times (residence times) at the camps also scale as a power law (μ = 1.45). A Lévy flight with step lengths μ = 2 is an optimal search pattern for scarce, randomly located targets; thus, the Ju/’hoansi foraging pattern may approach an optimal search in this area of sparse plant and animal resources. These findings affect the application of optimal foraging theory to humans in anthropology and archaeology because they alter the way in which search and travel times should be quantified. These results may also carry implications for the study of other patterns of human movement, such as demic diffusion and migration.

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Notes

  1. The Ju/’hoansi have in the past been known by other names including !Kung and Bushmen.

  2. Travel and search times seem to be proportional to distance in the Ju/’hoansi case. Lee (1979, p. 193) reports that the Ju/’hoansi travel 4–5 km/h with a load, and we know of no ethnographic evidence indicating that this rate varies nonlinearly with distance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL, 33431, USA

    Clifford T. Brown

  2. Center for Complex Systems and Brain Science, Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL, 33431, USA

    Larry S. Liebovitch

  3. 2258 West Huron Street, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Rachel Glendon

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  1. Clifford T. Brown
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  2. Larry S. Liebovitch
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Correspondence to Clifford T. Brown.

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Brown, C.T., Liebovitch, L.S. & Glendon, R. Lévy Flights in Dobe Ju/’hoansi Foraging Patterns. Hum Ecol 35, 129–138 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-006-9083-4

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