The way hunter-gatherers share food shows how cooperation evolved
As the Hadza move between camps, group rules trump individual selfishness or generosity
By Bruce Bower
East African Hadza hunter-gatherers are neither generous nor stingy. But the groups they live in are. That pattern highlights a flexible and underappreciated form of cooperation that may have helped humans go from mobile bands to industrialized states, researchers say.
Some camps share food more than others, but Hadza circulate among all camps rather than clustering in the most cooperative ones. Hadza individuals adjust their willingness to share food to the accepted standards, or social norms, of whatever temporary camp they live in, researchers report online September 20 in Current Biology.