News Anthropology

Farming’s rise cultivated fair deals

Market economies may owe more to cultural evolution than to Stone Age instincts

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Blanche DuBois, Tennessee Williams’ wide-eyed protagonist who relied on “the kindness of strangers,” had nothing on ancient farmers.

LET’S MAKE A DEAL A Samburu woman in Kenya, from a population of livestock herders, plays an experimental economics game while a research assistant watches. Carolyn Lesorogol

GIVE IT UP An Au man, from a group of foragers and plant growers in Papua New Guinea, ponders how to divide money between himself and an anonymous partner.