Where resources must be carried back to a base, distance changes what is worth taking, so foragers become more selective the further out they go.
The model predicts load size and selectivity as a function of travel time: a long trip must justify itself, so only high-value items are carried, while low-value items are taken near home. It has been applied to birds, to hunter-gatherer field processing, and to the archaeology of which animal parts appear at a site rather than at the kill.
In practice
- A team that travels to a client takes only the work that justifies the journey, and does small tasks remotely.
- A shopper going to a distant warehouse buys bulk and buys the pint of milk locally.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- How societies hold together, sort people, and change