Reciprocal Altruism in Yanomamö Food Exchange

19 Pages·2003·0.07 MB·English

Reciprocal Altruism in
Yanomamö Food Exchange
In
Human Behavior and Adaptation: An
Anthropological Perspective.
Edited by N. Chagnon, L. Cronk, and W. Irons
Aldine de Gruyter, Hawthorne NY (1998)
The Question
Is exchange among the egalitarian
!
Yanomamö a matter of:
shifting resources from those who are
"
productive to those who are needy?
or is exchange largely restricted to
"
reliable partners and thus a case of
reciprocal altruism?
A minor issue
How does village size affect the
!
patterning of food resource flows
between households?
Village size and scope of exchange are
"
negatively related.
Village size and exchange intensity are
"
negatively related.
Basic Data
Some measures of exchange
Scope: the number of household
!
that engage in exchange
Intensity: the proportion of food
!
consumed in a household that was
produced (given) by another
household
Balance (or contingency): the
!
correlation between amount given
and received between household
An egalitarian model of exchange:
consumer to producer ratios and “need”
A high consumer to producer ratio
!
indicates a family has a difficult time
meeting consumer needs for food (many
children relative to productive adults).
A low consumer to producer ratio
!
indicates a family has easy time meeting
consumer needs for food (many
productive adults relative to children).
An egalitarian model predicts that food
!
flows be biased towards households that
have high consumer to producer ratios.
Is this model correct?
Reciprocal altruism as the model
There should be a positive
!
correlation between the frequency
of exchange (how much “a” gave to
“b” and “b” gave to “a”).
Is there support for this model?
!
Scope II. Percent dyads of exchanging
households (percent of all possible dyads).
Villages Percent households in
exchange
Bisaasi 1986 13%
Bisaasi 1987 35%
Krihisiwa 34%
Rakoiwa 80%
Village size and exchange intensity
Intensity of exchange