As for the history of human colonization of America, there are several evolutionarily relevant properties. Homo sapiens is the only hominin species implicated in the exploration and colonization of America. We know that the earliest explorers of America probably possessed the technologies required to be successful in a variety of environments, including at least hunting and knapping skills as well as shelter, insulation, and navigational technologies. This does not mean that the relevant strategies, tactics, and techniques were all in use at any particular time but that a wide spectrum of sleeping technologies existed among those early populations. Also, a number of co-technologies probably existed, the best example being the use of lithic knapping techniques on bones in places where rocks are absent or scarce, or the capacity to select alternative raw materials. Adaptations to cold climates, like the use of bones or dung for fuel or intensive exploitation of animal resources, are classic examples of existing but rarely used recipes of action.Footnote 1
We can only speculate about ancient peoples’ rules for learning and transmission of information, but it can be argued that their recipes of action should have included a wide spectrum of technologies. The issue of acquisition of knowledge about new resources during colonization has recently attracted considerable attention (Borrero 1994–95; Meltzer 2002; Rockman 2009). The gathering of locational information is sometimes said to be easy (Nami 1994), but this is not always the case. One common process based on learning by trial-and-error is known as guided variation (Boyd and Richerson 1985:95–97). Indeed, new land is exactly the place where this kind of learning strategy is expected to be important. It certainly does it at a cost, since this process opens the door to mistakes. The possibility always existed that some sleeping technologies constituted Trojan horses, and maladaptation can be the result. Trial-and-error is an expensive but necessary tactic, since it is difficult to be conservative when you are exploring new lands.
Cultural transmission also needs to deal with resources of high and low transference value, a variable that surely affected the process of colonization. Botanic knowledge can be considered specific for certain areas and thus of low transference value to other vegetational zones. On the other hand, knapping techniques or hunting tactics can be considered of high transference value since they can easily be applied to different sets of rocks or animals with similar economic anatomies in different regions.
The acquisition of knowledge about distribution of sessile resources appears to be straightforward, only involving the discovery of locations where they are available. However, since some of those resources are affected by cycles like El Niño/La Niña, the rhythms of resource recolonization would be known by people only after decades. This is critical knowledge required to exploit several resources of the Pacific Coasts of South America. Other cycles are involved as well, like the recovery rates of areas affected by earthquakes and tsunamis or volcanic eruptions.