The DOI matches its Crossref record; 207 of the 209 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
To give and to give not: The behavioral ecology of human food transfers
Abstract
The transfer of food among group members is a ubiquitous feature of small-scale forager and forager-agricultural populations. The uniqueness of pervasive sharing among humans, especially among unrelated individuals, has led researchers to evaluate numerous hypotheses about the adaptive functions and patterns of sharing in different ecologies. This article attempts to organize available cross-cultural evidence pertaining to several contentious evolutionary models: kin selection, reciprocal altruism, tolerated scrounging, and costly signaling. Debates about the relevance of these models focus primarily on the extent to which individuals exert control over the distribution of foods they acquire, and the extent to which donors receive food or other fitness-enhancing benefits in return for shares given away. Each model can explain some of the variance in sharing patterns within groups, and so generalizations that ignore or deny the importance of any one model may be misleading. Careful multivariate analyses and cross-cultural comparisons of food transfer patterns are therefore necessary tools for assessing aspects of the sexual division of labor, human life history evolution, and the evolution of the family. This article also introduces a framework for better understanding variation in sharing behavior across small-scale traditional societies. I discuss the importance of resource ecology and the degree of coordination in acquisition activities as a key feature that influences sharing behavior.
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“Food sharing between unrelated individuals outside the mating context is rare but has been reported for humans, vampire bats, chimpanzees and bonobos [13,46,48,49,52].”
From Food sharing is linked to urinary oxytocin levels and bonding in related and unrelated wild chimpanzees (2014) · cites this paper as [46]
In the citing paper
“This link between food sharing and oxytocin found in chimpanzees may also be relevant for humans [70], where pro-social behaviour has often been linked to food sharing and provisioning [46,81,82].”
From Food sharing is linked to urinary oxytocin levels and bonding in related and unrelated wild chimpanzees (2014) · cites this paper as [46]
In the citing paper
“Many theories explaining various types of cooperation have been proposed in biology and economics (Fehr & Fischbacher, 2003; Gurven, 2004) but a theoretical explanation of unconditional altruism (de W ned as bene W ting others at a cost to oneself, Wilson, 1976) has remained elusive to date.”
From Altruistic behavior as a costly signal of general intelligence (2007) · cites this paper as Gurven, 2004
In the citing paper
“The statement that altruism may serve as a costly signal has received theoretical support in anthropology, biology, and economics (e.g., Boone, 1998; Gintis, Smith, & Bowles, 2001; Gurven, 2004; Lotem, Fishman, & Stone, 2003; Roberts, 1998).”
From Altruistic behavior as a costly signal of general intelligence (2007) · cites this paper as Gurven, 2004
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Metadata
- Authors
- Gurven, M.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gurven, Michael
- ORCID
- Gurven, Michael
- Venue
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2004-08
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 543-559
- ISSN
- 0140-525X (ISSN-L)
- 1469-1825
- OpenAlex
- W2122226023
- Cited by
- 582
- References
- 209
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 15.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Keywords
- food sharing, food transfers, kin selection, reciprocal altruism, costly signaling, cross-cultural comparison, resource ecology, gender division of labor, life history evolution, evolution of the family, unrelated individuals, traditional society
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