Hunting, healing, and hxaro exchange

“Several researchers have posited the existence of ancient cooperative breeding human societies [51-56] with some evidence of cooperative breeding among modern hunter-gatherers [57].”

“…low but consistent rates (e.g., plant foods) in favor of other resources (e.g., big game) that yield higher but much less reliable daily returns (Bliege Bird, 1999; Bliege Bird and Bird, 2005; Bliege Bird et al., 2001; Hawkes et al., 1991; Hill et al., 1987; Hurtado and Hill, 1989; Wiessner, 2002).”

“The need to expand the number of available “kin” may help explain why classificatory kinship systems are so common, as well as why foragers place so much stock in trade networks and other reciprocal relationships (Wiessner 2002).”

“Kung: Wiessner, 2002a), and status can improve average offspring survivorship (e.g. Ache: Hill & Hurtado, 1996; Yomut: Irons, 1979; Datoga: Sellen et al., 2000) or own and spouse survivorship from a preferential access to resources during times of need.”

“Group augmentation may also be important for males intending to remain resident (Wiessner 2002).”

“In various nonindustrial societies, status is synonymous with number of allies (13), who are sources of aid during conflict (63), illness (33, 64), and resource shortage (12, 65).”

“On the other hand, Wiessner (2002) argues that among the !”

“However, there is evidence that assembling a group of closely related kin and occupying land to activate claims has long been a concern of the Ju/'hoansi (Wilmsen 1989b; Wiessner 2002b).”

“…(kin selection, reciprocal altruism, foraging risk reduction, and “showing off”) leave unexplained variance in food transfer behavior (e.g., Bird et al., 2002; Bird and Smith, 2001; Hawkes, 1991; Hawkes et al., 1997, 2001; Kaplan and Hill, 1985; Sugiyama, 1996; Wiessner, 2002; Winterhalder, 1996).”

“…anthropological literature is still quite limited on this subject, one way hunters signal good qualities and build social capital is by acquiring large, high-risk, and/or dangerous prey and by generously sharing the meat in a highly visible context (Hawkes et al. 1991; Smith 2004; Wiessner 2002).”

“A forager who targets such resources becomes a source of public goods and can potentially gain socially, politically, and reproductively through such display (Hawkes 1991, 1993; Wiessner 2002; Smith, Bliege Bird, and Bird 2003; Smith and Bliege Bird 2005).”

“Women value hunting ability in mates (Marlowe, 2005), and the finding that good hunters experience greater reproductive success has now been reported in a number of societies including the Hadza (Hawkes, 2001; Marlowe, 1999), the Ache of Paraguay (Hill & Hurtado, 1996; Kaplan & Hill, 1985) and the !Kung Bushmen (Wiess…”

“Finally, generous individuals may attract a larger and healthier social support group (Wiessner 2002), which may provide more opportunities for cooperation and advantage in competitive interactions with other groups.”

“…space and have a significant influence on skeletal part treatment (see, for example, Hawkes, 1991; Hawkes et al., 1991; Hawkes and Bliege Bird, 2002; Lupo and Schmitt, 2004, 2005; Marlowe, 2004; McGuire and Hildebrant, 2005; Smith, 2004; Smith and Bliege Bird, 2000; Sosis, 2000; Wiessner, 2002).”

“As a result, foragers may readily smooth their consumption over short periods through reciprocal sharing between the lucky and the unlucky (33).”

“As Lee goes on to explain, and as others have shown as well (Wiessner, 2002), sharing large quantities of meat can be met with thanks (instead of the chastisement Lee was subjected to) and can have positive outcomes for hunters if hunters share in ways consistent with the notion that they are distancing themselves fro…”

“Kung (Wiessner, 2002), people of Lamalera, Indonesia (Alvard and Gillespie, 2004) and the Meriam of the Torres Strait (Smith et al., 2003) hunting success in males has been linked with higher fertility, younger wives, more sexual partners and/or lower child mortality (reviewed by Smith, 2004) and…”

“I would agree with Aswani that kinrelated altruism plays an important role in cooperation (Wiessner 2002), but cooperation in human societies extends far beyond the bounds of relatedness which would have significant genetic payoffs.”

“For example, there is evidence that attitudes concerning the role of sharing bushmeat in the fulfilment of social, cultural, and political needs are equally important in rural and urban areas (Wiessner 2002, Kaltenborn et al. 2005, Patton 2005).”

“…of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA e-mail: aktipis@alumni.reed.edu C. A. Aktipis Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA L. Cronk :R. de Aguiar Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA provide food and water, so that hxaro networks form a kind of social safety net (Lee 1993; Wiessner 1977, 2002).”

“There are no explicit norms dictating to whom one must give or from what prey type, nor are there formalized reciprocal relationships as are found in some groups (Damas 1972, Weissner 2002).”

“…and a variety of institutions have been described across hunter-gatherer cultures that limit the power and access to resources of single individuals, no matter how instrumentally valuable they are to the group (e.g. excellent big game hunters; Lee 1969; Lewis 2002; Wiessner 2002; Woodburn 1982).”

“These individuals can benefit from nonconsumptive rewards such as access to mates, larger networks of allies and/or trading partners, increased popularity and political deference (e.g., Bliege Bird and Smith, 2005; Hawkes, 2000; Sosis, 2000; Weissner, 2002).”

“Finally, recent ethnographic research on men’s hunting goals (e.g., Hawkes, 1991, 1993; Wiessner, 2002), clearly underlines the overriding significance that hunters attach to prey body size: if large game are present on the landscape, male hunters persistently seek them out.”

“…as the patrilocal band (Chapais 2008) and the tribe (Rodseth and Wrangham 2004), with flexible residence choice with kin in multiple communities and apparent intentional cultivation of ties with relatives in multiple locations (e.g., Hughes 1988; Marlowe 2010; Walker et al. 2010; Wiessner 2002).”

“This would be the case, for example, in the xaro exchange relationships that facilitated water sharing among Ju/'hoansi groups (Wiessner, 2002).”

“Network ideas have long been implicitly part ofHBE research on food sharing specifically (e.g., Hames 2000; Kaplan and Hill 1985) and support relationships and exchange more generally (e.g., Macfarlan, Quinlan, and Remiker 2013; Wiessner 1982).”

“Given the choice between procuring a 1,000 kg animal and a 20 kg animal with comparable handling costs, why not choose the larger? The potential caloric benefits of large animals are frequently matched by social (Testart, 1986; Condon et al., 1995; Cox et al., 1999; Gurven et al., 2000; Wiessner, 2002) and/or reproduc…”

“Research among egalitarian and small-scale societies suggests leaders do in fact have greater access to relational and embodied wealth (Smith, Bliege Bird, & Bird, 2003; Von Rueden, 2014; Von Rueden, Gurven, Kaplan, & Stieglitz, 2014; Wiessner, 2002).”

“And among the !Kung there appear to be multiple benefits to sharing meat broadly among the camp (Wiessner 2002).”

“Access to alternate residences and the resources of others was secured through more formal gift exchange partnerships called xaro (Wiessner 1982).”

“Nor are there formalized exchange partnerships such as the seal-fin partnerships of the Central Eskimo (Damas, 1972) or the hxaro partnerships of the !Kung (Wiessner, 2002).”

“First, there are often repeated interactions between the same groups, leading to long-term inter-group relationships [11,16].”

“Men are not only more competitive than women and respond physiologically to hunting as though it is a competition, but hunting ability is positively associated with increased reproductive success in a number of forager societies (Marlowe 1999; Hill and Hurtado 1996; Kaplan and Hill 1985; Wiessner 2002; Apicella 2014).”

“Distributions of hunted game may be meant to signal not hunting ability but prosocial intent, which could result in greater assistance in times of need (Gurven et al. 2000a; see also Wiessner 2002).”

“These socio-technical expansions were probably facilitated through chains of short-distance interaction in foraging ranges and during aggregation and dispersal phases (e.g. Wadley 1987; Pearce 2018), similar to that of ethno-historically known foragers (Yellen 1997; Wiessner 2002).”

“These observations sit within a wider set of studies that show how humans in small-scale societies often devise self-organized systems for sharing critical and limited resources, such as food, which have played a large role in our evolution, cognitive and emotional function, and adaptation to new environments (Ember e…”

“Work among mobile hunter-gatherers suggests that extensive kin-based institutions may have culturally evolved to mitigate ecological risk by creating broad, geographically dispersed social networks that could act as social safety nets after local shocks (Wiessner, 1998, 2002).”

“The fact that better hunters experience greater reproductive success in a number of these societies, including the Hadza (Apicella, 2014; Hawkes, 2001; Marlowe, 1999), the Ache (Hill & Hurtado, 1996; Kaplan & Hill, 1985) and !Kung (Wiessner, 2002) supports the notion that hunting ability, which requires a protracted p…”

“…(Vanhaeren and d’Errico, 2006), extensions of kinship terminology and the associated obligations (Foley and Gamble, 2009), as well as the exchange of symbolic artefacts (Whallon, 2006; Wiessner, 2002), which provide an external memory aid for tracking the history of interpersonal interactions.”

“Hunting and food sharing from hunting serves several functions, including costly signaling of hunting prowess, signaling social status, obligating reciprocity, attracting mates, and making political alliances (Patton 2005; Wiesser, 2002; Wood & Hill, 2000).”

“…Corr E-m journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/yjtbi Sit-and-wait versus active-search hunting: A behavioral ecological model of optimal search mode Cody T. Ross a, Bruce Winterhalder a,b,n a Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, United States b Graduate Group in…”

“…distribution of high-variance prey ends up being costly, it can serve as an honest signal of a hunter’s absolute generosity, and of his or her motivation to work for the public good (Bliege Bird et al. 2001; Boone 1998; Gurven et al. 2000; Sackett 1979; Smith and Bliege Bird 2005; Wiessner 2002).”

“Kung (Wiessner, 2002), Lamalera (Alvard & Gillespie, 2004), Meriam (Bliege Bird, Smith, & Bird, 2001), and the Hadza (Apicella, 2014; Marlowe, 2001).”

“…capture game by proxy (Trenton, 1998; Wadley, 2010); boats have given us access to new territories (Ferentinos et al., 2012; Wadley, 2013; Bjerck, 2016); and, the circulation of tools through trade and gifts has facilitated long-distance social relationships (Wiessner, 2002; Reckin and Todd, 2019).”

“Consider, for example, the hxaro gift-giving system of the Ju/ hoansi of Namibia and Botswana (Wiessner, 1977, 1982, 2002).”

“Reciprocity can include multiple currencies such as exchanging food for coalitional support [28], other items of value such as trade goods [29], delayed support when sick or injured [30], alloparenting [31], and teaching [32].”

“Fighting and migrating were preferred over starving, and trading may have promoted specialisation, competition, and inequality including of access to meat [404].”

“…recent groups living in the Kalahari, arrows played an important social role in meat distribution rituals and other exchange systems (Biesele 1975; Wiessner 2002), an association that probably extends back at least to the mid-nineteenth century (Bleek and Lloyd 1911) and possibly much earlier…”

“These social networks can be life-savers during periods of crisis, such as a drought or an injury, as has actually been well-observed over the long history of ethnographic research in the Kalahari (Wiessner 1977; Lee 1979; McCall 2000; Wiessner 2002; McCall and Widerquist 2015).”