Energy, intensification, and subsistence change: Hunter-gatherer earth ovens and alternatives to plant domestication in Central Texas

The concept of intensification, following the suggestion of Winterhalder and Leslie (2002), is analytically divided into micro and macro-intensification. Micro-intensification is the implementation of labor intensive activities by individual decision making units to boost production per unit area. Micro-intensification is a reversible phenomenon characteristic of human agents. Macro-intensification is a region wide concentration of production precipitated by the density of agents across a landscape. Packing models theoretically explain how the density of agents on a landscape necessarily shapes agent-to-agent and agent-to-environment relationships. Classification of societies according to levels of macro-intensification is a productive analytical strategy for instituting cross-cultural comparisons. Comparison of ethnographically recorded hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists supports the assertion that in some ecological contexts hunter-gatherer intensification strategies are preferable to domesticated plants.; Following the development of macro-intensification theory and the macro/micro dichotomy, the assertion that large accumulations of fire-cracked rock (burned rock middens) in Central Texas signal prehistoric hunter-gatherer intensification alternatives to staple domesticates is explored. The ecological contexts of modern hunter-gatherer earth oven use suggest that both internal and external ecological factors can shape the accumulation of fire-cracked rock. Modern earth oven use is related to both agent density and the structure of the environment agents live in. Understanding the relationship between burned rock middens and macro-intensification requires controlling for multiple domains of ecological variability. Binford's (2001) environmental and hunter-gatherer data sets are used to compare ecological dimensions of variability to burned rock midden accumulation patterns. These analyses indicate that modern hunter-gatherers living in Texas should use large earth ovens even at low population densities. The triangulation of radiocarbon dates associated with burned rock middens, bone isotope data, and predictions derived from a simple intensification model suggest that burned rock midden accumulation was shaped by macro-intensification pressures.