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Large-scale cooperation in small-scale foraging societies.

Robert Boyd1, Peter J Richerson2

  • 1Institute for Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.

Evolutionary Anthropology
|April 29, 2022
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Hunter-gatherer societies engaged in large-scale cooperation for collective goods, demonstrating this behavior is ancient. This suggests cooperation is an adaptation, not solely from small-group psychology.

Keywords:
collective actioncommunal foragingcooperationforagershunter-gatherersmismatch hypothesispublic goods

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Anthropology
  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Human Evolution

Background:

  • Understanding the evolutionary origins of large-scale human cooperation is crucial for explaining complex societies.
  • Previous theories often emphasized small-group interactions in shaping cooperative behaviors.

Observation:

  • Evidence from small-scale mobile hunter-gatherer societies reveals extensive cooperation in producing collective goods.
  • Activities included large-scale communal hunts, shared infrastructure development, environmental improvements, warfare, alliances, and trade networks.

Findings:

  • Large-scale collective action was vital for subsistence in Pleistocene societies, which represent most of human evolutionary history.
  • The provision of public goods involved numerous individuals making small contributions, facilitating widespread cooperation.

Implications:

  • Large-scale cooperation likely predates food-producing societies and is not solely an outcome of small-group evolved psychology.
  • Human cooperation is best understood as an adaptation, potentially linked to human biology, language, cognition, and cumulative culture.