Hunter Gatherer Studies Flashcards
(171 cards)
1
Q
How are HGs usually defined
A
Using subsistence strategy as a starting/defining point:
- Majority of food derived from hunting, gathering or fishing.
- Do not practice cultivation on a sizeable scale (hard to draw a line)
2
Q
How did Lee and Daly describing foraging
A
“Foraging refers to a subsistence based on hunting of wild animals, gathering wild plant foods, no domestication of plants, and no domesticated animals except the dog.” (Lee & Daly 1999)
3
Q
Have HGs domesticated any animals
A
No domestication bar the dog
Dog was only animal domesticated before the neolithic
Image of dog mandible found in grave with 2 humans from 15kya in Germany
First material evidence of domestication
Genetics suggest up to 30kya
4
Q
What are the typical characteristics of a HG society
A
Multi-family camps with multilocal (bilocal) residence.
- Mobile residence with fluid camp composition ~7 moves/year (Marlowe 2005).
- Tiered social organisation – camp, ritual level/residence pool, ethnolinguistic group.
• Egalitarian political organisation.
• Predominantly serially monogamous with ~10% of women married polygynously
(ibid.).
- Sexual DoL with male hunting and female gathering.
- This typical suite of characteristics describes the simple or immediate-return types…we will think more about complex/delayed-return later.
5
Q
How common are typical HG societies
A
Extant HGs rarely fit into the definition of ‘pure’ HG, usually have access to some resources through trade or government provisions, who may have given them gardens etc to practice some cultivation
More of a spectrum
Marlow defined HGs as anyone who had less than 10% of calories from cultivated foods
6
Q
Why do we care about HGs
A
• Humans developed agriculture ~10kya thus ~95% of our species’ and 99% of our genus’ history was spent as HGs.
• Maybe extant HGs can tell us about:
-the origins of our life-history and aspects of our
behaviour.
-offer a valuable comparison point when thinking
about human diversity.
-a current case for studying transition.
-mismatch and health.
7
Q
What did Kelly say regarding HG studies in 2013
A
• Hunter-Gatherers are the quintessential topic of anthropology (Kelly 2013).
8
Q
How were HGs viewed after the enlightenment
A
Emphasis on contrasting ‘primitive’ and ‘civilised’ human societies.
• Hobbes 1695 conceived of the primitive human state as:
“no Culture of the Earth … No navigation … no Knowledge of the face of
the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society …”
“…the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”
9
Q
Describe Spencer’s idea of social evolution
A
Herbert Spencer’s idea of social evolution:
- step-wise unilineal evolution of society progressing intellectually and morally.
- endpoint: monogamous, sedentary, patrilineal, monotheistic and white society.
- HGs developmentally retarded and relics of the past.
- HGs destined for extinction and lack technological complexity so devote time to food acquisition rather than intellectual pursuits.
10
Q
Give 2 unilineal frameworks of human history
A
Lewis Morgan divided human history (and diversity) into three phases: -savagery [HGs] -barbarism -civilisation
• Fredrick Engels adds lower, middle and upper to the savagery (and barbarism) stage:
-lower (gathering of fruits and nuts; still arboreal and a
transitional stage from the animal kingdom)
-middle (use of fish and fire)
-upper (bow and arrow allows for hunting)
Used popular Darwinian ideas – saw lower savagery stage as when humans were still part human
Considered lower and middle stages to be extinct while only upper savages are represented in the extant HG populations
11
Q
Who was Franz Boas
A
father of American anthropology.
• Originally a geographer/physicist during an
expedition became fascinated with Baffin Island Inuit culture.
• Rejected the unilineal view and idea of ranking societies, considered diversity as a result of history and diffusion.
• Emphasised cultural relativism + need for fieldwork and ethnography – cannot understand practices/beliefs of a society using an outside
perspective
12
Q
How did cultural ecology develop
A
Steward tried to identify links between culture and environment rather than ethnographic descriptions of specific societies – cultural ecology.
• Advocated comparative method and identifying adaptation, arguing historical processes are untestable.
13
Q
What is structural functionalism
A
(Radcliffe Brown): societies composed of interdependent units like organs of an organism.
Early functional thinking often followed group selectionist logic and considered societies as homeostatic systems e.g. infanticide as population regulation
14
Q
How did the demonisation of HGs become idolisation
A
- In 60s and 70s societal dissatisfaction high.
- Movement away from unilineal social evolution and consideration of what we can learn from HGs who seem relatively peaceful and egalitarian.
• Some idealisation of the HGs as noble savages; and the original affluent society rather than people who had no time due to lack of technology (Sahlins 1968;1972):
- lack of material property avoided being tied down
- HGs already had everything they wanted
• Lee reports that !Kung San have a 12-19 hour work
week…many wonder where it had all gone wrong.
15
Q
Is Lee’s stat of HGs only doing 12 hours work per week accurate?
A
Lee had focussed on foraging time, which was found to be much higher in other populations.
• HG work goes far beyond searching for food…what about tool manufacture, water collection, food
processing, firewood etc.
• Nor does less work imply sufficiency…harsh conditions and malnutritional can restrict opportunity for labour.
eg 4/5 hours a day cracking nuts
16
Q
Describe the levels in HG societies (4)
A
Lowest level is household with ‘nuclear family’ usually
Camp with multiple households where not necessarily relatedness between everyone – NOT one big extended family
(~30 residents in a camp)
150 individuals in a residence pool/ ritual level (made up of lots of camps) – Dunbar’s number
Ethnolinguistic level has many residence pools from 100s to 10s of 1000s
17
Q
How often do HG move between camps
A
Move often
Members of a household may frequently move between camps
Over weeks/ months people there at the beginning are different to the people there at the end
Fluid membership
18
Q
What is the ritual level of a HG society
A
residence pool (~150 people where people are usually familiar with and will at some point live with every other person in their residence pool )
Also called ritual level as everyone in residence pool will gather for a ritual
19
Q
How many HGs to a camp usually
A
30 members
20
Q
Describe the inequality and marriage system of HGs simply
A
Lots of autonomy and egalitarian
Between sexes and between ages (even children)
Serially monogamous with low polygyny rates
21
Q
How much of human existence is thought to be in HG lifestyle
A
Thought to be how humans lived for the majority of our existence as a species (95% of existence of Homo sapiens, never mind older hominin species)
22
Q
How many HG societies are there
A
Marlowe’s map of 50+ HG societies but work has focussed on 10-15 societies where researchers have lived there for ages and extrapolated results (eg Richard Lee with !Kung San)
23
Q
What HG group did Nik stay with
A
Mbendjele BaYaka
24
Q
Who are the Mbendjele BaYaka
A
Mbendjele is the ethnolinguistic group
Reside in northern congo
BaYaka refers to many pygmy populations who live in central and west Africa
Not to be confused with Aka who are a different ethnolinguistic group but still BaYaka – in central African republic
25
Why are the Agta so useful for testing ecological hypotheses
Northern Philippines
Some very costal, some in mountains, some in forests
26
Who coined the term 'survival of the fittest'
Spencer
27
How did unilineal evolution view HG societies
What was the beginning and end stages of cultural evolution in Morgan's eyes
Considered HGs as residue of a less advanced time just waiting to go extinct, without any intelligence to develop technology or humanities etc
Movement from being controlled by the environment to having control over the environment
28
Are HGs homogenous?
Why is it important to recognise this
```
No: Even if we restrict our analyses to simple warm-climate (>13C)
HGs:
-infant mortality (10-46%)
-fertility rate (0.81-8.5)
-polygyny (0-90%)
```
Presumably this variation was more pronounced in the past, so does it make sense to reconstruct one ‘ancestral’ lifestyle?
29
How does division of labour differ between HG groups
In some HGs women are involved in hunting e.g. net-hunting
among Aka. Whether men or women fish also varies by population.
• Ache men provide 87% (Hill & Hurtado 1996) of Kcal, Efe men
provide 40% (Morelli 1987).
30
How can HG studies be criticised
• Critics of HG studies state extant HGs have been pushed into low productivity
environments and marginalised by more successful farming societies.
• Thus extant HGs have much more nutritional stress and occupy a limited
range of habitats compared to our ancestors, which has knock on effects for
all aspects of social organisation (Barker 1999).
31
Why is Baker's 1999 criticism of HG studies not necessarily always true (4)
-Land can be bad for agriculture but good for foraging.
-Australian HGs living in low primary biomass areas weren’t forced there.
-When cold-climate foragers are excluded, forager habitats aren’t less
productive.
• Alternatively, due to technological advances resulting from ongoing cultural accumulation, productivity likely to be higher than in past (Marlowe 2005).
32
What is the Traditionalist view of HGs
- HG are relatively autonomous
- Increases in contact have had little impact
- HGs are egalitarian and nomadic with a longstanding distinct culture
33
What is the Revisionists and the Interdependent Model of HG
Give examples
* Wilmsen challenged Lee’s interpretation of the San as model for human evolutionary history…biased by preconceptions.
* HGs have had long standing interactions and trade relationships with neighbouring non-HGs for millennia.
* Some argue rainforest HGs cannot live independently without trade with farmers due to low availability of carbohydrates (Bailey 1989).
Bofi Pygmies trade 35% of their meat with local
horticulturalists (Lupo & Schmitt 2002).
* Commercial foraging is part of a larger economic system (Grinker 1992)…we can only understand extant HGs in the context of modernity….professional primitives.
* In recent times tourism and wage labour opportunities have become more common.
34
What is the Kalahari Debate
a series of back and forth arguments that began in the 1980s amongst anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians about how the San people and hunter-gatherer societies in southern Africa have lived in the past. On one side of the debate were scholars led by Richard Borshay Lee and Irven DeVore, considered traditionalists or "isolationists." On the other side of the debate were scholars led by Edwin Wilmsen and James Denbow, considered revisionists or "integrationists."
35
Give a summary of the intro to HG studies
* HG populations are those whose subsistence predominantly relies on foraging wild foods.
* Often implicitly referring to simple HGs who are nomadic, egalitarian & do not store food or accumulate resources.
* Perception of HGs has varied from one extreme (unilineal evolution) to the other (noble savages + original affluent society)
* Extant HGs may offer insight into our evolutionary history but:
- there is lots of variability now and was even more in the past
- many have a long history of interaction and trade with non-foragers
- they represent a fascinating part of humanity regardless
36
Why establish rank
Instead of fighting each time, risking injury/ death, they arrange into dominance hierarchy where you know your position
Can think of dominance as the imposed deference of subordinate individuals over contested resources (Ritualised fight or honest signal etc
Coalitions becoming important – between kin or between non kin )
37
How is rank determined in most primate species
In most primates, rank is determined by resource holding potential & sometimes coalitionary support.
38
Is hierarchy common to humans as a species
* Recognised hierarchical positions and social classes throughout most of human history: big men, chiefs, emperors etc.
* Can’t assume uninterrupted trend since CHLCA…
39
How did Boehm describe the egalitarian syndrome
“They are politically egalitarian to the degree that named leadership roles are
lacking or devoid of authority, status differences among politically autonomous
household heads are muted, and individuals who try to influence group decisions
must do so very circumspectly. The guidance mechanism for this deliberate
behaviour is an egalitarian ethos (Cashdan 1980) that involves a set of indigenous
attitudes that make for strong valuation of personal autonomy of adults (Gardner
1991). These values help generate group hostility toward any individual who even
attempts to assume a serious role of authority in the band, let alone baldly tries to
coerce other adults.” (Boehm 1997).
40
What are the core tenants of the egalitarian syndrome
- Consensus decision making
- Leadership/ranks absent or ‘weak’ i.e. no ultimate authority
- Rejection of dominant behaviour + emphasis on autonomy
- Obligation to behave cooperatively and generously
41
How did Lee use
| an ethnographic description to explain the maintenance of egalitarianism in HGs
Bizarre self-deprecating traditions and obligatory modesty.
Keeping individuals in che - bully/ insult hunters etc to 'keep him gentle' (Lee 1969)
• Concepts of ownership and property are weak > reports of individuals taking things as they please – demand sharing.
• ritualised practices facilitating:
-voicing of opinions (for consensus decision making)
-ridicule of others behaviour (authoritative/self-aggrandizing)
42
Give 2 events described by Bombjakova
What do they promote
Mòsámbò
Mòádʒò
aims for the members to grow into wisdom
43
What is Mòádʒò
- ritualised mockery
- often involves mimicking or re-enactment
- ridicule often centred around selfishness/boastfulness
44
How are individual sexes initiated in the BaYaka?
How do the sexes establish and maintain sexual equality ?
BaYaka men and women go through a series of sex-specific initiation rites, each associated with a specific mokondi and resulting in the acquisition of secret knowledge.
During massana dances, often one sex emphasises their value, collective solidarity and mock the other – fierce egalitarianism
45
What are the Mokondi
spirits of the forest in BaYaka culture
46
Give examples of massana in the BaYaka
• In women’s Ngoku massana they may sing lyrics:
-penis stop sleeping
-their testicles are broken
• During Sho, men run around the camp, arms linked, chasing women into their huts.
47
What is the point of massana
each sex demonstrates that they cannot be dominated by the other sex via rituals where the coalitions of each sex demonstrate the weaknesses of the other sex
48
Describe the male initiation in the BaYaka
Starts with isolation, only visited by already initiated men (no contact with women eg mother) who taunt you
Scared, drunk, tired
Not allowed to smile - modesty
Painted in pigment and oils and made to sit in the sun
You may have your ‘mother’ wipe your eyes or a friend look up at the sun for you
Hit etc etc
Forced to do a serious of secret trials that are scary, embarrassing, difficult
Lose any sense of superiority; learn that power lies with the collective and you yourself are no better than anyone else
Severe punishment for divulging secrets
Levelling mechanism
49
What is reverse hierarchy
Because humans can plan group-wide synchronised activities/ behvaiours to rebuttal individuals – hierachry turned on its head so collective always at the top
Any time an individual try to exert power, the collective suppress the selfish behaviour
50
What did Boehm say regarding reverse hierarchy?
What does this mean?
Egalitarianism does not just happen, it is made to happen.
(Boehm 1997)
Humans have cognitive ability to form group-wide coalitions allowing for reverse hierarchy - the usual primate pyramid of dominance and power turned upside down
(Boehm 1997; Gavrielets 2008).
51
What is the mechanism behind reverse hierarchy
Levelling mechanisms prevent dominant/self-aggrandizing behaviour from flourishing e.g. ridicule, ostracism and execution (Boehm 1993).
52
If humans all have the same cognitive ability to form coalitions why is egalitarianism not ubiquitous
Because HGs have no food storage + reliance on unpredictable resources, HGs are highly interdependent…
Ache HGs would have less than 1000kcal/person on ~30% days, but with food sharing only 3% of days.
Self sufficiency is impossible, especially given complimentary roles of males and females (fats and proteins vs micronutrients and carbs)
After Neolithic, when food could be stored and complete interdependence disappears, allowing dominance to emerge
53
What are the different ways to classify HGs
- immediate vs delayed return - when resources are consumed(Woodburn 1982)
- simple vs complex (Price 1985)#
Utility and defining features highly debated. Is complexity about social
organisation/ economic activities + labour relations/ technology/
demography etc.
54
Describe egalitarianism in complex HGs
Evidence for non-egalitarian ‘complex’ foragers:
- ethnographic descriptions of non-egalitarian foragers, particularly in North America at contact (NW coast + southern California)
- archaeological record (burials, monuments) provides more widespread evidence for status differentials among foragers, particularly over last 15kya.
55
Describe the hierarchies, mobility, settlement size, and type of technology in simple HGs
egalitarian
highly mobile
small camps
low investment, portable technology
56
Describe the hierarchies, mobility, settlement size, and type of technology in complex HGs
elites and social classes (wealth/descent)
sedentary/low mobility
large settlements
elaborate technology
57
Describe the population density, territory, storage, and specialisation in simple HGs
low population density
no defined territory
no storage
little specialisation (exc. sex-based)
58
Describe the population density, territory, storage, and specialisation in complex HGs
high population density
territorial defense + warfare
reliance on storage
substantial specialisation
59
Is there a cause of complexity in HGs?
complicated:
• what is a cause of complexity in one model becomes a precondition of
complexity in another and a consequence of complexity in yet another
(Arnold, 1996, p. 95)
60
Are there any ecological correlates with complex HGs
• Strong bias towards coastal populations – classic case is the societies on
NW Pacific Coast.
• Heavy reliance on aquatic resources, esp. salmon:
61
Why may coastal locations lead to complex HG societies
• Heavy reliance on aquatic resources, esp. salmon:
- predictable in location
- extremely abundant
- seasonal
cf. Terrestrial resources unpredictable and thinly dispersed thus require high
mobility over larger areas
62
How do costal HGs become complex?
Give study
Seasonally abundant predictable fish -> large settlements by resource-rich sites -> storage + intensification allowing independence(Roscoe 2006).
63
What is the surplus feasting model
• Resource rich environments + storage:
-private ownership
-possibility for surplus production
>unlocks potential for hierarchy…
• Aggrandizers use surplus to enhance political and economic self-interest…create dependencies and debts --> gain power.
• Principal means is via hosting of feasts…competitive feasting extremely common in complex HGs (Hayden
2009).
64
What is population pressure
population density relative to resource availability
65
What is the importance of population pressure in HG studies
Give a study
When population pressure is high, mobility is reduced as available space is limited and people want to settle near rivers etc where resource can be acquired esp if seasonally available
High PP associated with increased sedentism and reliance on food storage among sample of 94 HG societies (Keeley 1988).
66
Why does high population pressure lead to complex HG societies
When population pressure is high, mobility is reduced as available space is limited and people want to settle near rivers etc where resource can be acquired esp if seasonally available
Intensification and storage become only option but require considerable labour and coordination…particularly for seasonal resources.
Inter-group conflict for control of productive defensible
resource + stored surplus + slaves for labour.
>opportunities for leaders to emerge to increase efficiency and prevent free-riding
cultural group selection
67
Give a summary of the lecture on egalitarianism
* Simple hunter-gatherers are egalitarian and reject dominance via levelling mechanisms/reverse dominance.
* High variability in food acquisition > mutual dependence > dominance isn’t viable
* Complex hunter-gatherers are more sedentary, have more elaborate technology, store food, live in larger groups, are hierarchical and territorial.
• Little consensus around mechanics underlying emergence of complexity but
association with reliance on seasonally abundant fish:
-facilitates sedentism > increased tech + storage > ownership + surpluses >
economic + political competition
-population pressure > reduced mobility > intensification and storage > increased need for coordination in production and warfare > emergence of leaders and slavery
68
How predictable is HG subsistence (3)
risky subsistence - Large amount of luck involved
Hunting success rate rarely approach 50%
‘success’ is very loose term (something brought back if only a rat etc)
Only 3% of Hadza return with big game
69
Describe meat as a part of our diet
Meat has:
- highest variance index
- highest sharing depth and breadth
70
How does subsistence relate to food sharing (2)
• During transition as diet becomes more stable, sharing reduces overall.
Hunter gives almost 90% of meat away (much larger than fruit etc)
71
What are the depth and breadth of sharing
Depth = how much is kept by producer vs given to others
Breadth = how many households is the food shared between
72
What did Alvard show about food sharing
Very specific rules about who gets what part of sperm whale – specific to hunters’ jobs in the catch etc
73
How are rules and beliefs related to food sharing
• Taboos regarding which classes of individuals own/eat which portion.
• Someone other than the hunter is in charge of distribution.
'the society seems to want to extinguish in every
way possible the concept of the meat belonging
to the hunter’ (Marhsall 1976, p297)
• Eating kill by yourself causes illness/ loss of hunting ability etc.
74
What is demand sharing
Demand sharing: food not actively shared by producer but demanded by others, and very rarely refused…reports of harassment and attempts to hide meat
75
Give an example of the punishments for not sharing food in HGs
Among !Kung and Ache (mella=non-giver), being stingy is the worst insult;
Bertoni 1941 reports a selfish Ache being clubbed to death.
• Pressure + cultural rules over distribution --> lack of producer control
76
Give a Hadza belief about not sharing
If they ate rest of food themselves there are negative consequences eg Hadza believe you become very ill
77
Why is food sharing so important in HG studies (3)
Human hyper-cooperativeness has been emphasised as one of our defining characteristics:
- ubiquity of cooperation between non-kin
- scale at which cooperation occurs e.g. warfare
* The unpredictability of the ancestral foraging niche is likely one of the principal adaptive problems our species faced during our evolutionary history….offers insight into the evolution of our hyper-cooperativeness?
* Food sharing is quantifiable – ideal context to test adaptive hypotheses
78
What is The Ancestral Cooperative Dilemma?
Cooperation – incurring a cost to provide a benefit to others.
• Ethnographic descriptions suggest producer control is absent and meat is a public (/common) good.
• If food is transferred from haves to have nots, why bother put in the effort of foraging? [free rider problem]
79
What makes meat a common good
if you eat meat then that decreases the meat for everyone else ie rival; but is non-excludable bc it is just taken by others)/ public good so you get the free rider
80
What are 2 Adaptive Explanations for Food Sharing (without producer control)
Tolerated Theft (Blurton Jones ‘84; Winterhalder ‘96)
Show-off/ Costly Signalling Hypothesis
81
What is Tolerated Theft
• Willingness to fight ∝ marginal fitness value of food resource.
• Diminishing marginal returns of food --> less willingness to defend food
as eat more, willingness of hungry others to fight remains high.
• DMRs particularly pronounced for large resource packages that rot.
• Ceteris paribus expected equilibrium is cede portions until all
contenders have equal marginal consumption value.
(Blurton Jones ‘84; Winterhalder ‘96)
Maybe but doesn’t change the fact that the relative fitness of a scrounger will be higher than the fool who went hunting and had all his meat taken
Why go and hunt in the first place?
82
Describe food sharing in vampire bats
64% of sharing dyads were unrelated, approaching the 67% expected if nepotism was absent. Consistent with social bonding, the food-sharing network was consistent and correlated with mutual allogrooming.
these findings support the hypothesis that food sharing in vampire bats provides mutual direct fitness benefits, and is not explained solely by kin selection or harassment.
Carter 2013
83
Describe the Show off hypothesis to explain food sharing
* Hunting can be dangerous and success is influenced by skill & physical prowess.
* Many argue it does not fit OFT models and is inefficient in terms of calorific returns on time and energy e.g. Hawkes et al. 1998…if showing-off, risky + difficult to acquire resources are specifically targeted!
• Emphasises social/mating benefits that follow from signalling phenotypic quality
[next lecture]…doesn’t matter if hunting returns eaten by others.
84
When do honest signals evolve (4)
- variation in unobservable attribute
- observers benefit from reliable information
- effective signalling provides some benefit
- ability/costs of sending signal vary with attribute
85
Give an example of hunting acting as a honest signal
Trophy Hunting among the Meriam
(Bleige-Bird et al. 2001)
* Turtle hunting takes more time & energy, involves more risk, and has lower return rates than foraging [costly].
* Ability dependent on strength, agility and ecological knowledge [honest].
* Hunted turtles are shared widely at feasts [broadcasting]
Protein and fat return rate much greater for foraging for shellfish
Hunting returns does seem to correlate with fitness/ success in marriage market:
Hunters have higher RS and earlier age at first birth as well as having mates with higher RS and earlier reproduction (Smith 2003)
86
What are cooperative clusters in Hadza camps
• Individuals form ties (gift and campmate game) & reside with those of similar ‘cooperativeness’ (public goods game) - People tended to want to live with others who were a similar level of cooperative as themselves, despite public goods games being private
• Cooperative clustering allows individuals to reap the
rewards of cooperation without being exploited by free riders - Little variance of donations within camps but large variance between camps
• Mobility may be crucial to this selective assortment…voting with your feet
Apicella et al. 2012
87
Give the equation for kin selection
Br>C where:
- B is the benefit to fitness of the recipient
- C is the cost to the fitness of the actor
- r is the coefficient of relatedness between them
88
Describe reciprocity in food sharing
Reciprocity
• X helps Y, providing benefit By at cost Cx. Y helps X at a
later time (delayed direct reciprocity) and provides Bx > Cx.
• Relevant currency is effect on fitness not absolute
quantity of food
• Likely if one can provide a large benefit at a small cost – asymmetry in effects on fitness (e.g. high variance large
package food)
• Mixed support for generalised reciprocity – correlation of total amount given and total amount received
irrespective of who form (Gurven 2004)
89
Is there evidence for systematic food sharing
expect food shares to follow a systematic direction eg a nuclear family with low dependency will generally share with another related family
Allen-Arave (2008) showed this is more or less true in the Ache -> While kin are preferred recipients of food aid, food distributions favor kin that have given more to the distributing household in the past rather than kin that would benefit more from the aid
Positive association (weak) between specific imbalance and difference in need
Much stronger positive relationship between calories from D to R vs R to D
90
Is there evidence of direct reciprocity in food sharing
• Lamelara marine hunters reside on island of Lembata,
Indonesia.
• Secondary distribution: HHa 192 times more likely to
share with HHb, if HHb shares with HHa.
• Variance in food sharing network: 45% explained by
reciprocity, 15% by kinship (Nolin 2010)
91
What did Dyble show about food sharing
Some evidence of producer control due to bias, see graph from Dyble 2016
Within a camp there are 4 different community structures, reflected by the colour of the node
Sharing happens with only 15 others
Clear structuring of food sharing
Reciprocity is most consistently pattern of food sharing – but don’t oversimplify it
Remember this is mostly about large game not all food generally
92
Give a summary of the food sharing lecture
* Ethnographic reports emphasise lack of producer control and that hunters don’t get advantageous share of their kills…free-rider problem?
* Evo models suggest the widespread sharing may be adaptive owing to costs of defence (TT)/ benefits of phenotypic signalling (CS)/ selective assortment of cooperators.
* Empirical analyses suggest that food sharing is in fact structured within camp towards kin and reciprocal partners.
* Mixed evidence - unlikely that any single explanation applies to all forager societies or even all sharing within a society.
93
How does economic inequality persist
Mulder 2012 emphasised the importance of intergenerational transmission for long term inequality which may originally have stemmed from a short term shock (positive or negative)
• Shocks to wealth create ‘immediate’ inequality
between individuals/HHs.
e.g. illness, bountiful harvest, windfalls, theft etc.
• Strong inter-generational transmission
counteracts regression to the mean and allows
shocks to accumulate and have enduring effects.
94
Why might we think HGs have no inequality
Simple HGs don’t store material resources, they are immediate-return….there is no land, cattle, food or money to store let alone inherit.
• Does inequality even make sense in a [simple] HG context:
-no resource storage
-no resource monopolisation (dominance ranks)
You could point out non-human primates who have no storage and still have hierarchies but simple HGs do not have dominance hierarchies or monopolisation
HGs have much lower variance in fitness
But inequalities are not non-existent
95
Give an example of how levels of fitness inequality differ between subsistence classes
Full time farmers eg Incas have far more inequality than HGs
Within full time farmer class, lots of difference in levels of inequality - Incas much more unequal than Egyptians
whereas HGs tend to all have similar levels of inequality (very low)
Betzig 2012
96
Give 3 different types of wealth
Why is this important when considering inequality
• Material capital - tangible assets which are external to the body
-e.g. land, money, livestock, tools
• Embodied capital – assets stored in the body (inc. brain)
-e.g. strength, health, knowledge, skill, charisma
• Relational capital – network of social partners
-e.g. allies, kin, sharing relationships, followers
In the absence of material resource accumulation, other forms of capital may drive inequality in resource access and fitness variance.
97
Give an example of In the absence of material resource accumulation, other forms of capital driving inequality in resource access and fitness variance.
• E.g. among the Martu, father presence > earlier initiation into manhood > earlier marriage >
earlier onset of reproduction > greater RS (Scelza 2010
98
Why may different types of wealth lead to inequality
However
Leads to downstream differentials in access to key resources (food and mates) which in turn leads to variance in fitness
Much higher level of intergenerational heritability when we have stored resources (there is ofc some transfer of embodied and relational wealth in HG) - Mulder 2012
99
Define social status
Social status - deference from others resulting in superior access to contested resources e.g. mates, food, territory etc.
100
What is the difference between dominance and prestige
• Dominance:
-main form of status in non-human animals
-deference coerced from group members
-derived from perception of ability to inflict costs
• Prestige
-deference freely given
-derived from perception of ability to confer benefits
101
What is the dual nature of human social status
Reliance on cooperation and culture enhances importance of prestige
Not necessarily about others’ physical prowess but about the benefit they can bestow upon on us
Both aspects of hierarchy important
102
What did von Reuden find about prestige (8)
Ranked members of Tsimane in prestige and dominance
Found in top dominance quartile they had 2 more offspring for their age vs bottom quartile
Even stronger for prestige (>2.5 more offspring)
Dominant and prestigious men had younger partners who started reproducing earlier – high fertility
Higher prestige led to higher offspring survivorship
Had more members of community helping them?
embodied capital often predicted higher dominance, while relationship capital predicted prestige
this may neglect interactions between different types of capital
103
As there is no storage in simple HGs, how do inequalities in resource access vary?
- resource acquisition (hunting ability)
- resource transfers
In the pure demand sharing model of HGs there is no producer control and resources are distributed equally/based on need.
However, we have seen in many cases food sharing is
structured within camps. - Maybe some individuals are more likely to be recipients of food transfers?
104
What did Chaudhary find regarding food distribution in the BaYaka
Honey stick game
Honey – loved by HGs
Game where they can distribute 3 honey sticks however they want
In all camps many got 0 sticks
Multimodal curve - Not even distribution
Modal number of sticks received in ~2/3, but there is also a peak around 10 for very popular individuals
Chaudhary et al. 2016
105
How does the findings of Chaudhary's 2016 honey stick game with the BaYaka reflect reality?
Real world food distribution matched experimental data
BMI had clear strong relationship between BMI and relational wealth in both sexes
Kinship only explained 10% of variance in honey sticks
Intellectual property v important – where goods are free but knowledge costs
106
How does social capital relate to marital status in the BaYaka
Just over 10% of men tend to be polygynous at some point having 2 wives
These polygynous men had higher relational wealth cf. monogamous counterparts
More sharing/ better network could allow a men to support multiple wives
Chaudhary et al. 2015
107
Give some examples of BaYaka knowledge that acts as embodied capital
Plant knowledge
Can paralyse prey, have medicinal uses etc
Many are doing something – many plants’ frequency of use correlate between camps and even with gorillas and do have bioactive properties
Lots of variation in plant knowledge
108
Instead of relational capital, what could be another driver of prestige differences in HGs
embodied capital - knowledge economies
109
Give an example of how a knowledge economy can lead to prestige variation in the BaYaka (3)
Among the BaYaka, whilst it is taboo to claim ownership of goods, intellectual property is recognised and accepted (Lewis 2015).
* Two recognised ‘positions’ among the BaYaka are nganga (healer) and konja wa mokondi (spirit controller).
* Individuals significantly more likely to give honey stick to those with better plant knowledge than themselves (unpublished data).
Knowledge often stays within families
110
Describe the importance of the Mokondi for the BaYaka
```
(spirits of the forest):
-played/danced (massana) by one sex
-initially found in the forest/ a dream
-highly valued and provide benefits
• For each spirit there are three levels of association:
-mboni (uninitiated neophyte)
-ngonja (initiated)
-konja wa mokondi (spirit controller)
```
you can’t participate in the dances until you’re an ngonja (to become one you often have to pay with resources etc)
…control rights can be extended via inheritance and trade.
111
Give 2 examples of HG inequality associated with the Mokondi
Give another associated with hunting
you can’t participate in the dances until you’re an ngonja (to become one you often have to pay with resources etc)
Konja wa mokondi is the one who found the spirit and they are the only one who can initiate a massana – this can be passed on via inheritance/ trade
=prestige inequality
TSIMANE: increased hunting ability leads to increased social status (more extra-pair mating, more defense alliances, more trade insurance and more help in childcare) and family provisioning (more in pair mating and child survivorship) which all leads to increased fertility and suvivorship of self, spouse and child, increasing overall biological fitness
Gurven & von Reuden 2006
112
Give a summary of inequalities in HG societies (5)
Can conceive of wealth/capital as consisting of three classes – material,
embodied, relational.
• Human social status can take the form of dominance (perception of ability to
inflict costs) and prestige (perception of ability to confer benefits).
• Simple HGs:
-no accumulation of material capital (immediate-return), but variation in embodied
and relational capital > consistent differences in access to nutritional resources.
-dominance not tolerated (egalitarian), but varaition in embodied/relational capital
> prestige differences > consistent differences in access to fitness-relevant
resources (food, help with childcare, mates etc.).
113
How does human lifespan compare to chimps
Humans have much longer lifespan (HG vs chimp) – well beyond 50yoa
Kaplan et al. 2000
114
When is childhood
Most authors refer to childhood as whole of this time after weaning, whereas Kramer (2010) says childhood is ~2-5yrs and then juvenile period after this
115
What is the importance of early weaning in human LHS
- extended nutritional dependence
- mother can return to reproduction > short IBIs and high fertility
- allows non-maternal individuals to provision and offer care > not obligate reduction in survival
116
What is the key purpose of childhood
Extended childhood due to skill intensive huntergatherer foraging niche.
• During long immature period children can develop embodied capital required for successful foraging
develop into the human cognitive niche (Pinker, 2010)
117
What is contradictory about the human LHS
High fertility and high offspring survival - seems contradictory to quality/ quantity trade-off than defines LH theory
118
How did Kaplan (2008) claim childhood emerged?
When Africa savannahs emerged, bringing human bipedality and increased day range with a higher density of mammals, led to a human feeding niche based on high quality and large package size foods. This led to food sharing/ cooperation, lower mortality rates and investments in embodied capital.
This requires longer development and larger brains.
Increased embodied capital is needed for hunting and increases adult productivity and provisioning, decreasing mortality rates and making humans fitter.
Need lower mortality to justify delayed reproduction, high adult skill level allows this decrease in mortality
119
How do chimpanzee food production and consumption vary throughout life
Compare this to human male HGs
What about females
production and consumption are matched essentially throughout life
Human males consume more than they produce in the first ~15 years then production sky rockets and production far exceeds consumption, leading to excess
production dips below consumption again around 60 years
Female production is lower than consumption for most of their lives due to reproductive effort and caring for offspring
Foraging with child on your back drastically reduces productivity
Not until post-reproductive phase that you see the production become surplus
Highlights importance of male provisioning
120
With regards to teaching:
a) What is imitation
b) What is observation
c) play-practice
d) practice
a) Imitate The focal child is imitating a model doing a specific task or activity such as taking the kernels out of a wild plant.
b) The focal child is observing a model who engages in an activity that requires specific knowledge or skill such as digging a wild tuber or sharing a hunted meat.
c) The focal child is in a playgroup practicing a skill or acquiring cultural knowledge through play. For example, boys are play-hunting or a mixed children group is performing a forest spirit ritual through play.
d) The focal child is practicing a skill in the absence of a model. We coded this behaviour as practice as opposed to trial and error, because trial and error indicates individual learning, whereas practice may include those skills that were previously acquired by imitating and observing others.
121
How common is active teaching in HGs
Active teaching is least common form of social learning unlike western societies
Clear that middle-late childhood play practice is vital – once not spending most time with mother, they spend most time playing with other children of different ages
Salali & Chaudhary et al. 2019
122
What can we learn from children in HG societies
Humans are obligate copiers
HGs let children be free to copy rather than helicopter parenting
Children playing with knives is v common – as soon as they have the grip strength
Injury is very rare when practicing different subsistence forms
123
Discuss play and sexual division in HGs
Girls show lower level of play from an earlier age
Start contributing to foraging in a real way earlier on
Special ways to traverse the forest that boys tend to mess up
Even being able to locate underground tubers is v impressive
Salali & Chaudhary et al. 2019
124
Which skills are important for observation vs active teaching
Foraging and tool use skills are predominantly acquired by observation, imitation, practice and play
Teaching is principally useful for social norms
Foraging and tool use are very visible whereas social norms and rituals etc have more opaque elements to them
Subtleties and rules need to be actively explained as they are implicit rather than explicit
Salali & Chaudhary et al. 2019
125
Give some non-adaptive explanations for menopause
Some non-adaptive explanations regarding physiological and phylogenetic constraints:
- shifts in lifespan beyond female ability to supply eggs/sustain cycles.
- antagonistic pleiotropy favours – regular cycles and fertility in early life related to follicular depletion underpinning menopause.
126
Give the first initial adaptive ideas about menopause
- extended period of dependency among highly dependent offspring
- better strategy to ‘stop early’ and ensure survival of already born
- expect post-reproductive lifespan equivalent to dependency period
127
Summarise the rationale for the grandmother hypothesis
- do we really ‘stop early’ compared to chimps?
- post-reproductive life much longer than dependency period
- extended longevity rather than early termination is the derived feature of human life-history.
128
Summarise the Grandmother hypothesis
(Hawkes)
How does this contrast Kaplan's embodied capital approach
* Due to an increasing reliance on geophytes in human evo history there was an opportunity to increase inclusive fitness by aiding in rearing grandchildren.
* Selection for an extension in longevity at the cost of a delay in onset of reproduction following traditional Charnov LH model.
juvenile period not that long given length of lifespan, evolved to facilitate longevity not for embodied capital.
-causal relationship between lifespan and extended juvenile period
reversed.
-emphasis on female rather than male provisioning (remember hunting is more likely to be honest signal than for provisioning)
129
Why is menopause important in orcas
Lots of skill/knowledge held by grandmothers
When salmon are abundant, there is an even distribution of who is leading the group but when salmon are rare, grandmothers take over
They have the experience and knowledge of areas for fallback foods etc
Enhance survival of offspring
Brent et al. 2015
130
Give a summary of the lecture of human LHS (6)
* Early weaning > dependent offspring can be provisioned by alloparents > reduced IBI
* Extended childhood > develop embodied capital - learn complex subsistence skills and social norms .
* Learning begins primarily via imitation and after weaning occurs in the context of playgroups.
* Teaching rare and reserved for abstract visually non-transparent info/ skill e.g. social norms.
• Increased reliance of geophytes + efficiency increases with experience > post-reproductive women
increase inclusive fitness via provisioning grandchildren.
• In this case the late age at maturity (long childhood) was the trade-off underpinning the evolution of a post-reproductive lifespan + female provisioning more fundamental.
131
Among mammals, who usually looks after offspring
Among mammals, females usually provision and rear own offspring
relatively independently.
both Direct care (hands on care) and indirect care (provisioning, protection).
Mothers rarely receive any parenting assistance
132
What is an allomother
• Allomother – Non-maternal individual providing childcare.
What is the baseline? What is cooperation?
Biparental care is already cooperation
133
What are 3 different types of breeding system
Social breeding – females live in groups but do not provide allocare.
- Communal breeding – females breed simultaneously and pool young to share in rearing responsibilities.
- Cooperative breeding – non-breeding helpers assist breeders (creche)
134
How common is cooperative breeding in non-humans
What form can this take
3-9% of birds + 2-10% of mammals (Hatchwell 2009;
Lukas & Clutton-Brock 2012).
• Majority of breeding restricted to dominant female/pair, supported by non-reproducing alloparents
135
How do meerkats stabiles alloparenting?
What happens if this is unsuccessful?
Is this only in meerkats?
Meerkats uses pheromones to suppress cycling of other females so they will help her
If this is unsuccessful and another female gives birth, dominant mother can commit infanticide
in other species, helpers’ reproduction may be suppressed by dominants
via pheromones, destruction of subordinate eggs and
infanticide.
136
Give some eusocial animals
• Eusociality in Hymenoptera and Isoptera (and naked mole rat). Most helpers never reproduce and organised into DoL castes based with specialised morphological adaptations.
Remember haplodiploid eusocial insects have sisters that are more related to sister than offspring
Not only explanation – species of eusocial termite that are not haplodiploid
But still very common genetic system in eusocial species
137
How does monogamy relate to group relatedness?
Monogamy increases within group relatedness
Cooperative breeding with no monogamy is very unstable and usually reverts back to no cooperation and no monogamy
Group augmentation and safety also provide some explanation but kinship still an important factor
Lukas & Clutton-Brock 2012
138
Why would an organism put up with an indirect fitness strategy (eg not reproducing and being another organism's alloparent)
- risk of dispersal e.g. predation
- lack of available territory
- lack of mating opportunities
- low Pr of successful reproduction e.g. scarce resources
These ‘ecological constraints’ lead to delayed dispersal of mature offspring who become helpers at the nest (Emlen 1982)
139
Why is the human LHS so successful
Achieve higher quality and quantity of offspring cf. other great apes
Women can produce far more offspring support because they receive help from allomothers
Early weaning allows mother to return to reproduction
Allo-nursing can start right from birth
140
What did Turke find regarding human alloparenting
Turke 1988
How did sex of offspring affect the overall reproductive success of the parent
Mothers who had daughters early in reproductive career had greater long term RS
Girls are more involved in child rearing so early daughters provide more alloparenting
Mothers with first 2 chidlren are daughters have ~4 children more than if the first 2 were sons
141
Summarise the results of Sear and Mace's study 'Who keeps children alive?' (5)
Give 1 drawback
In all studies, not having a mother decrease chance of survival
Only in 1/3 of studies did having a father improve survival
Grandmothers very important esp maternal grandmother due to parental certainty
Older siblings have very high positive effect but only examined in 6 societies
Humans are obligate alloparenting species
Study only looked at kin – is there effect from non-kin alloparent
142
What technique did Chaudhary use to explore BaYaka childhood in detail
Altman focal sampling technique - follow a child for 4 days for 12 waking hours and write down what they are doing every 20 seconds
143
Describe BaYaka childcare
very indulgent and sensitive
BaYaka are almost never alone
144
Give facts about a day in the life of an Efe infant (5)
* Alone for less than 1% of time if under 6 months; in physical contact 96% of time.
* In contact with an alloparent 40% of day at 3 weeks and 60% of the day by 18 weeks.
• At 18 weeks infants transferred between carers more than 8
times an hour.
* 14 alloparents each day, mothers only constitute 50% of interactions for infants < 6 mo. And 25% for children aged 3.
* Breastfed by multiple women and first nursing will be with an allomother not mother!
(Tronick et al.)
145
What is the key difference between childcare in the Agta and BaYaka
very similar distribution of care
Key difference is fathers and grandmothers
Siblings and unrelated very significant (unrelated per capita is low just bc there are so many unrelated people in camp)
But the key nonrelated allomother can provide 10% of all care for the child
146
Who is care given to in HG societies
When close kin are providing help they direct it towards dependent households who need it more
For non kin reciprocity explains help – communal breeding
147
How long are HG children cared for
Very quick transition from cared for to carer (capable of alloparenting by 4yrs)
148
How does grandmothering relate to cooperative breeding
The grandmother hypothesis is somewhat analogous to traditional cooperative breeding model:
- non-breeding allomother
- inclusive fitness benefit
- cost to personal reproduction (later onset of reproductive maturity)
149
What is a key problem with the grandmother hypothesis
Are grandmothers actually available?
Chaudhary shows likelihood of grandmother survival and then likelihood they are present for a given child (lower in Agta than BaYaka because they have higher fertility so grandmothers have to spread their time over more children across more camps and then does grandmother have own children to look after (reproductive overlap – this is high in Agta – high likelihood of giving birth even in last decade of reproductive life - so increases later in life)
Consistently siblings, subadults and non-kin are super important, while grandmothers and fathers are much more variable
150
Why is reproductive overlap not good for grandchildren
If they have high dependency loads they help out much less
Chaudhary (unpublished data)
151
Summarise human cooperative breeding (6)
• Focus on fathers and GMs has caused us to miss some key trends:
-Nonkin and siblings are super important and consistent allomothers.
-A third of allocare from breeders + reciprocity important – more like communal breeding?
-Majority of non-breeding helpers aren’t sacrificing reproduction. Is the phenomenon analogous to cooperative breeding in a meaningful way?
-Contribution of fathers and grandmothers varies highly…dependent on ecology?• Consideration of provisioning is essential for concluding on this issue, today has just covered direct care.
• Is there a human system at all?
152
Is there a problem with using the term 'hunter-gatherer'
Used self-consciously, however, there is nothing wrong with the term “hunter-gatherer” – as long as we recognize that it carries no explanatory weight, that it is only a heuristic and pedagogical device, a way to carve up humanity temporarily into some analytically manageable pieces
general theory should account for diversity across the conventional categories that anthropology imposes on humanity, as well as within them
153
How were Marxist theories used in the 1980s to examine HGs
it was the apparent absence of these elements from the lives of hunter-gatherers that inspired some analysts to discover a classless society in them, or “primitive communism.”
BUT hierarchies still exist, complex vs simple HGs, some HGs even have a slave class (Kelly, 2013)
154
even when a behavior is common to modern foragers, why might it not be representative of Pleistocene humans
because of the current prevalence of a causal variable – for example, circumscription due to European colonization, trade, or low population density
even Lee (1984) denied that any contemporary hunting and gathering society could represent a "Pleistocene condition"
155
What do revisionists see the San
historical reproductions of the social policies, pressures, and political economy of the colonial era in South Africa, and today represent a "devolution" from previous subsistence strategies that were not limited to hunting and gathering
156
What did Kent (1992) say of the Kalahari Debate
traditionalists may be criticized for granting the San cultural integrity and antiquity while denying them history, the revisionists may be criticized for granting them history while denying them cultural integrity.
populations that are currently considered to be traditional hunters and gatherers, such as the Eskimo, Pygmies, Philippine Negritos, Dorobo, Hill Pandaram of South India, Punam of Sarawak, and others all have histories which demand consideration in each case of the ontogeny of their contemporary internal diversity.
157
Did Lee revise his claim about the hours HG work
Lee, now suggests that a work week for hunters and gatherers consists of more than forty hours (Lee 1984), about double his earlier calculations.
158
Give examples of inconsistencies within Lee and Wilmsen's arguments regarding HG power structures
Lee asserts that he was convinced that "the iKung have no headmen" (1984).
Yet, earlier (1982) he argued that two types of headmen have appeared among the San within the last eighty year
159
Give an example of a HG society changing behaviour in both the 19th and 20th Century
Madagascar’s Mikea, for example, retreated to the forest to avoid slavers in the nineteenth century and again, in the1960s, to avoid taxation
In fact Bradt (2007) claims they are only a recently formed society of people who fled villages in the 18/19th Century
160
Give examples of how contact with HG societies can change them in different ways
Wilmsen claims the San are egalitarian because of colonist/trader contact
BUT
initial contact with outsiders made Northwest Coast hunter-gatherers more warlike and socially stratified (Ferguson 1984)
161
Give examples of how lamguage trends differ between HG societies
Mbuti only speak Bantu languages of neighboring farmers
Hadza have had contact with agro-pastoralists for a long time but maintain their language. Their interaction has been limited mainly to the trade of meat and honey for iron and tobacco, and has altered the Hadza surprisingly little over the past century
(Marlowe, 2005)
162
What is the key change that makes HGs so different from Pleistocene humans in Marlowe's view
tech
trend in all societies to increased efficiency
(Marlowe, 2005)
163
How has tech changed HG societies since Pleistocene humans (4)
use iron now - less time per tool in manufacturing
nets - men and women more often hunt together (change in sexual DoL) eg in Aka
Poison - Hadza use of poison likely to increase hunting efficiency
Fishing - uses spears, bows baskets, poison etc - recent developments - in fishing communities fishing males account for significantly more calories than in non-fishing
(Marlowe, 2005)
164
What types of HG does Marlowe suggest may be reasonable guides to human lifeways
Hadza women, and women in many other warm-climate foraging societies with simple technology
even tho these women have been shown to steal meat from leopards with just a digging stick (tech) - Pleistocene humans likely had this sort of tech
(Marlowe, 2005)
165
Use home-ranges to exemplify how different HG societies are
significant differences between Old and New World samples with New World having larger home-range and ethnolinguistic populations
differences are more like inter species than intraspecies -> resembles wild dogs?
(Marlowe, 2005)
166
Describe 3 arguments on the effect of sibling sex on reproductive success
Turke (1988), Bereczkei (1998), and Kramer(2002) found evidence that older daughters had a positive impact on some facets of mothers’ reproduction.
Flinn (1989) found that female helpers (pre- or postmenopausal) had a positive influence on mothers’ fertility but that the sex of mothers’ eldest offspring had no effect
Hagen and Barrett (2009) found in Shuar horticulturists, female siblings had a significant negative impact and male siblings had a significant positive impact - effect of subsistence and presence of storage?
167
Describe food sharing in Hadza children
while sharing may be biased towards kin, reciprocity characterizes the majority of all sharing dyads, both related and unrelated.
age positively correlates with an increase in sharing, both in frequency and amount -> acquired social norms/ culture
(Crittenden, 2015)
168
Describe a meta-analysis of food-sharing
Jaeggi and Gurven, 2013
reciprocity accounted for a large amount of food sharing but varied between HG societies
authors suggest variation is based on ecology
Cases with low estimates of reciprocity may reflect sharing as public displays of generosity, as among the Meriam, or conditional on joint production and labour input rather than past sharing behaviour, as has been described among the Ache on forest treks
169
Do market forces exist in small scale societies and non-humans
reciprocal ex-change can provide a reliable solution to adaptive problems
Although individual strategies patterned by market forces may generate gains from trade in any species, humans’ slow LHS and skill-intensive foraging niche favor specialization and create interdependence, thus stabilizing cooperation and fostering divisions of labor even in informal economies
Jaeggi, 2016
170
How might the interaction of human LHS and food-sharing
the high energetic demand of human LHS traits and skill intensive dietary niche (often with unreliable returns) predisposes humans to daily and long-term energy deficits
Dyble et al. (2016) found food sharing in the Agta and BaYaka existed in multilevel social structures, with individuals situated in households, within sharing clusters of 3–4 households, within the wider residential camps, which vary in size.
these groupings serve to facilitate inter-sexual provisioning, kin provisioning, and risk reduction reciprocity, three levels of cooperation argued to be fundamental in human societies
a multilevel social organization allows individuals access to both the food sharing partners required to buffer themselves against energetic shortfalls and the cooperative partners required for skill-based tasks such as cooperative foraging
171
Give 2 recent studies on food sharing in HG societies
Ringen et al., 2019: used Bayesian phylogenetic analysis and found Food sharing norms reliably emerge as part of cooperative economies across time and space but are culled by innovations that facilitate self-reliant production.
Apicella et al., 2022: asked 110 Hadza about foraging and sharing decisions
outcome-oriented accounts of foraging motive (e.g., to get food) and moralistic accounts of sharing motive (e.g., I have a good heart)
men were more likely than women to rank skill-signaling highly.
Contrary to the expectations of tolerated theft, peer complaints and requests for food ranked very low
