Moving far or moving often? A neglected axis of variation in hunter-gatherer mobility

As one of the hallmarks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle, mobility is a primary concern for both archaeologists and ethnographers studying hunter-gatherer settlement systems. Most research considering hunter-gatherer mobility, however, concentrates primarily on the total distance moved by a group per annum. This paper develops a novel metric, the Distance/Frequency Index (DFI), which describes a continuum between relatively frequent, short moves and relatively infrequent, long moves, and is derived to be orthogonal to total distance moved per annum. Multiple regressions of the DFI on a series of important demographic, social, and economic variables demonstrate that it correlates positively with population density and negatively with group size, percentage hunting in the diet, mean annual precipitation, and effective temperature. Analyses of a more recently collated subset of these data suggest that the correlations with group size and effective temperature are particularly robust. The DFI can also be related to a number of measures of occupation intensity and duration derived from archaeological assemblages, and to existing models of residential and logistical mobility. The DFI thus provides a valuable second axis of variation in hunter-gatherer mobility.