Selection versus opportunism: A view from Neanderthal subsistence strategies

William Rendu (1)

1 ZooSCAn - Archaeozoology in Siberia and Central Asia

Neanderthal subsistence strategies were considered for a long time through the lens of the duality of selection versus opportunism, mostly as a comparison to the hunting behaviours developed in later periods. Based on some examples from the literature, this chapter proposes a review to discuss the presence of selection and opportunism in the different stages of the predation chaîne opératoire developed by Neanderthal populations in Eurasia. We underline the existence of a continuum between these two options and the impossibility of using this duality to evaluate the Mousterian subsistence strategy. We conclude that long-term organization is at the centre of the Neanderthal subsistence and is strongly connected with the adaptation of Neanderthals to the opportunity offered by their territory.

Mots clés: Zooarchaeology; Middle Palaeolithic; hunting strategy; human evolution; adaptation

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Anthropologie biologique

William Rendu. Selection versus opportunism: A view from Neanderthal subsistence strategies. Francesca Romagnoli; Florent Rivals; Stefano Benazzi. Updating Neanderthals. Understanding Behavioural Complexity in the Late Middle Palaeolithic, Elsevier, pp.109-122, 2022, 978-0-12-821428-2. ⟨10.1016/B978-0-12-821428-2.00013-5⟩. ⟨hal-03766370⟩