Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK.
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Nature. 2024 May;629(8013):837-842. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07354-8. Epub 2024 May 1.
The record of past human adaptations provides crucial lessons for guiding responses to crises in the future. To date, there have been no systematic global comparisons of humans' ability to absorb and recover from disturbances through time. Here we synthesized resilience across a broad sample of prehistoric population time-frequency data, spanning 30,000 years of human history. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of population decline show that frequent disturbances enhance a population's capacity to resist and recover from later downturns. Land-use patterns are important mediators of the strength of this positive association: farming and herding societies are more vulnerable but also more resilient overall. The results show that important trade-offs exist when adopting new or alternative land-use strategies.
过去人类适应能力的记录为指导未来应对危机提供了重要经验。迄今为止，还没有对人类随着时间推移吸收和从干扰中恢复的能力进行系统的全球比较。在这里，我们综合了跨越 3 万年人类历史的广泛史前人口时频数据的恢复力。对人口下降的横断面和纵向分析表明，频繁的干扰增强了人口抵抗和从后期衰退中恢复的能力。土地利用模式是这种积极关联强度的重要中介：农耕和畜牧社会总体上更脆弱，但也更具弹性。研究结果表明，采用新的或替代土地利用策略存在重要的权衡。
