Food Sharing Among Ache Foragers: Tests of Explanatory Hypotheses [and Comments and Reply]

@article{citeulike:2187411, abstract = {This paper aims to describe and explain aspects of food sharing among Ache hunter-gatherers of eastern Paraguay. Food sharing has been widely held to be a fundamental feature of the hunting and gathering way of life and has been hypothesized to have played a major role in the evolution of language, intelligence, and the sexual division of labor. The very general question that guided the research is: What factors are responsible for the evolution of food sharing among adult conspecifics, and how can we account for the variation among groups in the extent to which food is shared? Five alternative hypotheses concerning the evolution of adult-adult food sharing are reviewed and analyzed in terms of the competing predictions they generate. These hypotheses invoke (1) kin selection, (2) tolerated theft, (3) temporal reciprocity, (4) cooperative acquisition of food resources, and (5) conservation of resources. For meat and honey, the resources the Ache share most, the data conform to the predictions of the tolerated-theft and temporal-reciprocity hypotheses, with some qualifications. Long-term differences in productivity between foragers suggest that reciprocity is not completely balanced. The implications of these results for a general theory of food sharing are discussed.}, author = {Kaplan, Hillard and Hill, Kim and Cadeli\~{n}a, Rowe V. and Hayden, Brian and Hyndman, David C. and Preston, Richard J. and Smith, Eric A. and Stuart, David E. and Yesner, David R. }, citeulike-article-id = {2187411}, journal = {Current Anthropology}, number = {2}, pages = {223--246}, posted-at = {2008-01-02 08:42:23}, priority = {3}, title = {Food Sharing Among Ache Foragers: Tests of Explanatory Hypotheses [and Comments and Reply]}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/2743137}, volume = {26}, year = {1985} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2187411 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2187411 TI - Food Sharing Among Ache Foragers: Tests of Explanatory Hypotheses [and Comments and Reply] JF - Current Anthropology VL - 26 IS - 2 SP - 223 EP - 246 N2 - This paper aims to describe and explain aspects of food sharing among Ache hunter-gatherers of eastern Paraguay. Food sharing has been widely held to be a fundamental feature of the hunting and gathering way of life and has been hypothesized to have played a major role in the evolution of language, intelligence, and the sexual division of labor. The very general question that guided the research is: What factors are responsible for the evolution of food sharing among adult conspecifics, and how can we account for the variation among groups in the extent to which food is shared? Five alternative hypotheses concerning the evolution of adult-adult food sharing are reviewed and analyzed in terms of the competing predictions they generate. These hypotheses invoke (1) kin selection, (2) tolerated theft, (3) temporal reciprocity, (4) cooperative acquisition of food resources, and (5) conservation of resources. For meat and honey, the resources the Ache share most, the data conform to the predictions of the tolerated-theft and temporal-reciprocity hypotheses, with some qualifications. Long-term differences in productivity between foragers suggest that reciprocity is not completely balanced. The implications of these results for a general theory of food sharing are discussed. AU - Kaplan, Hillard AU - Hill, Kim AU - Cadeliña, Rowe AU - Hayden, Brian AU - Hyndman, David AU - Preston, Richard AU - Smith, Eric AU - Stuart, David AU - Yesner, David PY - 1985/// UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/2743137 ER -