Cooperation practices allow fighting resource stress episodes

ZURRO, D.; BRIZ, I.; ALVAREZ , M.; GALÁN, J.; SANTOS, I.; PEREDA, M.; CARO, J.; AHEDO, V.

Cambridge

Workshop; Sharing: The Archaeology & Anthropology of Hunter-­Gatherers; 2016

University of Cambridge

One of the major questions that have been explored in several scientific disciplines of the social sciences and the humanities is the influence of resource stress on human populations. Imbalance between population and resources is a transversal topic of general interest that is considered paramount to explain a great number of aspects which are relevant to our evolution as species such as population dynamics (like carrying capacity and human dispersal), productive and reproductive strategies, technological innovation, changes in social organization, development of social complexity or impact on warfare and conflict, among others. Within the scientific archaeological literature, it is broadly assumed that, in case of an imbalance between population and resources, hunter-gatherers generally adopt responses that can be included within the production domain. The production domain, referring to the acquisition of resources, includes different issues such as specialization, the intensification of production through technological development, changes in the organization of labour, the diversification of resources or the incorporation of new resources into the diet like those called ?famine foods?. There is a clear material correlate of most technological innovations, which is a probable cause for the preeminence of these interpretations in archaeological explanations.However, anthropological, ethnoarchaeological and ethnographic research allow us to enrich our hypothesis and propose new scenarios. Different cases show us that, to a large degree, hunters and gatherers face resource stress episodes through changes into the distribution and consumption domains, in addition to changes in production. More specifically, changes in how resources and information are shared, modifications on cooperative strategies or reinforcement of existing strategies (e.g. traditional sharing practices) are some of these strategies.We have developed a simulation based on ethnographic information on hunters and gatherers in order to explore the behaviour of a virtual population subjected to diverse degrees of resource stress. Our aim is to explore the development or reinforcement of cooperative dynamics as responses put into practice by hunter-.gatherer societies to face critic thresholds like changes caused by fluctuations in resources availability.According to the values given to the parameters, the results produce different scenarios. Those in which resource stress can be almost non-existent, those where resources are extremely scarce or a mid-way scenario where social agents face the need to develope ?dairy? survival strategies. Sharing emerges as one of the solutions that allow to deal with risk, through a mechanism of indirect reciprocity.