‘Simple’ hunter-gatherer populations adopt the social norm of ‘demand sharing’, an example
of hu... more ‘Simple’ hunter-gatherer populations adopt the social norm of ‘demand sharing’, an example
of human hyper-cooperation whereby food brought into camps is claimed and divided by
group members. Explaining how demand sharing evolved without punishment to free riders,
who rarely hunt but receive resources from active hunters, has been a long-standing problem.
Here we show through a simulation model that demand-sharing families that continuously
move between camps in response to their energy income are able to survive in unpredictable
environments typical of hunter-gatherers, while non-sharing families and sedentary families
perish. Our model also predicts that non-producers (free riders, pre-adults and post-productive
adults) can be sustained in relatively high numbers. As most of hominin pre-history
evolved in hunter-gatherer settings, demand sharing may be an ancestral manifestation of
hyper-cooperation and inequality aversion, allowing exploration of high-quality, hard-toacquire
resources, the evolution of fluid co-residence patterns and egalitarian resource
distribution in the absence of punishment or warfare.
‘Simple’ hunter-gatherer populations adopt the social norm of ‘demand sharing’, an example
of hu... more ‘Simple’ hunter-gatherer populations adopt the social norm of ‘demand sharing’, an example
of human hyper-cooperation whereby food brought into camps is claimed and divided by
group members. Explaining how demand sharing evolved without punishment to free riders,
who rarely hunt but receive resources from active hunters, has been a long-standing problem.
Here we show through a simulation model that demand-sharing families that continuously
move between camps in response to their energy income are able to survive in unpredictable
environments typical of hunter-gatherers, while non-sharing families and sedentary families
perish. Our model also predicts that non-producers (free riders, pre-adults and post-productive
adults) can be sustained in relatively high numbers. As most of hominin pre-history
evolved in hunter-gatherer settings, demand sharing may be an ancestral manifestation of
hyper-cooperation and inequality aversion, allowing exploration of high-quality, hard-toacquire
resources, the evolution of fluid co-residence patterns and egalitarian resource
distribution in the absence of punishment or warfare.
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of human hyper-cooperation whereby food brought into camps is claimed and divided by
group members. Explaining how demand sharing evolved without punishment to free riders,
who rarely hunt but receive resources from active hunters, has been a long-standing problem.
Here we show through a simulation model that demand-sharing families that continuously
move between camps in response to their energy income are able to survive in unpredictable
environments typical of hunter-gatherers, while non-sharing families and sedentary families
perish. Our model also predicts that non-producers (free riders, pre-adults and post-productive
adults) can be sustained in relatively high numbers. As most of hominin pre-history
evolved in hunter-gatherer settings, demand sharing may be an ancestral manifestation of
hyper-cooperation and inequality aversion, allowing exploration of high-quality, hard-toacquire
resources, the evolution of fluid co-residence patterns and egalitarian resource
distribution in the absence of punishment or warfare.
of human hyper-cooperation whereby food brought into camps is claimed and divided by
group members. Explaining how demand sharing evolved without punishment to free riders,
who rarely hunt but receive resources from active hunters, has been a long-standing problem.
Here we show through a simulation model that demand-sharing families that continuously
move between camps in response to their energy income are able to survive in unpredictable
environments typical of hunter-gatherers, while non-sharing families and sedentary families
perish. Our model also predicts that non-producers (free riders, pre-adults and post-productive
adults) can be sustained in relatively high numbers. As most of hominin pre-history
evolved in hunter-gatherer settings, demand sharing may be an ancestral manifestation of
hyper-cooperation and inequality aversion, allowing exploration of high-quality, hard-toacquire
resources, the evolution of fluid co-residence patterns and egalitarian resource
distribution in the absence of punishment or warfare.