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Cited by 907

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 12 of the 12 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Signaling Theory, Strategic Interaction, and Symbolic Capital

Bliege Bird, Rebecca, Smith, Eric Alden·2005·Current Anthropology

Abstract

Signaling theory provides an opportunity to integrate an interactive theory of symbolic communication and social benefit with materialist theories of individual strategic action and adaptation. This article examines the potential explanatory value of signaling theory for a variety of anthropological topics, focusing on three social arenas in which signaling might plausibly be important: unconditional generosity, wasteful subsistence behavior, and artistic or craft traditions. In each case, it outlines the ways in which the phenomena correspond with the expectations of signaling theory by showing how a given pattern of action might signal particular hidden attributes, provide benefits to both signaler and observers, and meet the conditions for honest communication. The ethnographic evidence suggests that the fundamental conditions for reliable signaling of conditiondependent qualities may exist in many social domains. It appears that signaling theory has considerable promise for generating novel and powerful insights into the ethnographic realm.

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Metadata

Authors
Bliege Bird, R., & Smith, E. A.
Venue
Current Anthropology
Published
2005-04
Volume
46
Issue
2
Pages
221-248
ISSN
  • 0011-3204 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5382
OpenAlex
W1573010155
Cited by
907
References
12
FWCI
70.21
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Signaling Theory, Strategic Interaction, and Symbolic Capital. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1086/427115
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Bliege Bird, R., & Smith, E. A. (2005). Signaling Theory, Strategic Interaction, and Symbolic Capital. Current Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1086/427115

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.