Our results highlight the importance of subsistence strategy as one of the factors underlying the evolution of human geographic cranial variation.
The growing importance of subsistence farming in the transition period, as well as off-farm income and remittances likely explain these patterns.
Given that the potential exposure to AIVs while hunting is assumed to be low but the cultural importance of subsistence hunting high, our study indicated a need for more education about avian influenza and precautions First Nations hunters can take to reduce the possibility of AIV exposure while harvesting wild birds that are culturally-appropriate.
In painting a portrait of those who fish for their meals, "Free Dinner in the City: It Comes With a Catch, of Course" (news article, July 3) gives short shrift to the real health risks associated with eating contaminated fish, and the importance of educating subsistence anglers.
From the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe, and earlier in Africa, projectiles tipped with osseous points were of great importance for subsistence; but thus far, no specific experimental reference has been developed to help identify the traces left by these points.
Palms are of key importance for subsistence strategies and cultural identity among many indigenous people (e.g., Schultes 1974; Balée 1988; Gertsch et al. 2002; Byg and Balslev 2004).
People appear to have evaluated different resource categories freshwater, protein, carbohydrates, and lithic raw materials at different spatial scales depending in part on their importance to subsistence but also on the variable productivity and distribution of the resources themselves.
The special importance of sorghum for subsistence farmers in arid and infertile lands is due to its higher level of tolerance to drought and to waterlogging and its more frugal use of soil nitrogen fertilizer than other cereal crops [ 2].
The level of use and degree of reliance on forests and its importance as a source of subsistence varies geographically, over time and across communities (Babulo et al. 2008; Bwalya 2013).
Abundant phytoliths from reeds and sedges indicate the critical importance of wetlands in hunter gatherer subsistence strategies.
By doing so, we point to the need to move beyond single-year data collection to comparable temporal points and panel data as well as the importance of accounting for a) subsistence use values, b) commercial use values, and c) ecological forest contributions in poverty alleviation policies.
