Hunter-Gatherers Flashcards
Introduction
Hunter-gatherers make their living by harvesting wild plant food and hunting for wild game, such lifestyle predates agriculture, villages and domestic animals. Unlike the modern humans, hunter-gatherers are highly cooperative and egalitarian people. At first sight these characteristics seem to contradict evolutionary theory and Dawson’s idea of the selfish gene, that in the long-run, our genes would only be selected for if it benefited us as an individual and that we should strive for dominance and status and not show these levels of egalitarianism. However, Erdal & Whiten argue that evolutionary principles can explain the levels of egalitarianism found in hunter-gatherers in terms of social Machiavellian Intelligence. This essay shall outline… using empirical evidence, the essay will shed some light on the high levels of egalitarianism and cooperation found in modern hunter-gatherers in terms of the Machiavellian Intelligence Hypothesis.
Cooperation:
Erdal & Whiten (1996) strategic modeling procedure
Erdal & Whiten (1996) used a strategic modelling technique to study the social behaviour of hunter-gatherers. Strategic modelling technique involves sampling a large number of species or human groups in order to extract underlying principles. They studied 24 ethnographies (is the systematic study of people and cultures) from 22 tropical hunter-gatherer peoples
Cooperation:
Erdal & Whiten (1996) strategic modeling results
They were able to uncover two particularly striking universal patterns: all hunter-gatherers are highly cooperative and egalitarian. The cooperative aspects of hunter-gatherer behaviour are not difficult to explain in term of modern evolutionary theory. Cooperation involves working together in an integrated way toward some common benefit. By cooperating an individual enjoys a net benefit over and above what they would have experienced if they had not cooperated and had aggressively competed instead.
Cooperation Hunting:
introduction
Hunting is also co-operative and cognitively complex, the suggestion is that our weak ape ancestors overcame competition through intelligences not strength, using group tracking and hunting, verbal discussion, sign language, co-ordination at kill, prey collection, hunt planning, weapons preparation. There is a theory that hunting was one of the main factors that lead to the evolution of cooperation in humans. Support for this view can be observed in non-human species.
Cooperation Hunting:
Support?
Boesch (2002) observed that the Tai chimpanzees hunt more than the Gombe population and they exhibit much higher levels of cooperation when hunting. Strum (1974) showed that when hunting increased in the Pumphouse group of baboons, their levels of cooperation while hunting and eating meat increased.
Egalitarianism: P1
introduction & Definition
Although cooperation is not particularly difficult to explain in term of evolutionary theory, egalitarianism aspect of hunter-gatherer social organization is very surprising indeed. Egalitarianism refers to preferring equality of resource distribution to inequality. Hunter-gatherers share food over and above what they can expect to receive in return and they share power: there are no leaders, it is a society of respected equals. Evolutionary theory emphasizes the survival of the fittest, based on individuals that compete with each other for resources. The equal sharing of resources and power in hunter-gatherers seems entirely contrary to what one would expect from evolved predispositions. However, Erdal & Whiten argue that it is still evolutionary principles that can explain the levels of egalitarianism found in hunter-gatherer societies.
Egalitarianism: P2
hierarchical societies vs. egalitarian societies
All non-human primates, including the great apes, live in hierarchically structured groups with some individuals out ranking others. Hence, it is likely that our early ape ancestors also lived in hierarchical societies. However, all hunter-gatherer groups have been found to live in egalitarian societies. So, some time in our past our ancestors probably manifested the same social organisation. Yet, with the arrival of agriculture and herding 10-12,000 years ago, human social organisation took a sharp upturn back to hierarchical structures.
Egalitarianism: P2
Erdal and Whiten (1996) argument
Erdal and Whiten (1996) argue that the sharp turn back to hierarchical organisation happened too quickly for it to be based on genetic mutations. Instead they propose that the same psychological predisposition of social or Machiavellian intelligence underpins both the egalitarianism of hunter-gatherers and the hierarchical social structures found in agriculturalist and pastoralist societies.
Egalitarianism: P2
Erdal and Whiten (1996) argument reasoning
Due to the pattern of resource distribution and the need for social interdependence in hunter-gatherer society, Machiavellian tactics and counter tactics in response to status and resource striving seemed to have reached a ceiling. The counter tactics (i.e., counter dominance behaviours) seemed to have become so effective that egalitarianism became the only viable social system for hunter-gatherers. Agriculturalism and pastrolism (keeping domestic animals) allowed larger groups (which made cheating and stealing easier to achieve), less social interdependence and the accumulation of possessions.
