Social coperation and resource management dynamics among late hunter-fisher gatherer societies in Tierra del Fuego (South America)

IVAN BRIZ I GODINO ; JOSÉ IGNACIO SANTOS; JOSÉ MANUEL GALÁN; JORGE CARO; MYRIAN ÁLVAREZ; DÉBORA ZURRO

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

springer

Lugar: New York; Año: 2014 vol. 20 p. 525 - 714

1072-5369

This paper presents the theoretical basis and first results of an agent-based model (ABM) computer simulation that is being developed to explore cooperation in hunter?gatherer societies. Specifically, we focus here on Yamana, a hunter-fishergatherer society that inhabited the islands of the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina?Chile). Ethnographical and archaeological evidence suggests the existence of sporadic aggregation events, triggered by a public call through smoke signals of an extraordinary confluence of resources under unforeseeable circumstances in time and space (a beached whale or an exceptional accumulation of fish after a low tide, for example). During these aggregation events, the different social units involved used to develop and improve production, distribution and consumption processes in a collective way. This paper attempts to analyse the social dynamics that explain cooperative behaviour and resource-sharing during aggregation events using an agent-based model of indirect reciprocity. In brief, agents make their decisions based on the success of the public strategies of other agents. Fitness depends on the resource captured and the social capital exchanged in aggregation events, modified by the agent?s reputation. Our computational results identify the relative importance of J Archaeol Method Theory DOI 10.1007/s10816-013-9194-3 I.