The Behavioral Ecology of Food Sharing among North Siberian Foragers

Altruistic Resource Transfer

Within hunting-and-gathering bands and other small-scale societies, resources are often supplied through kinship or friendship networks in sustained one-way flows (Sahlins 1972). Marshall Sahlins (1972:193-194, 199) defined generalized reciprocity, or "putatively altruistic" transactions of assistance given and, if possible and necessary, returned, occurring generally among close kin. The important feature of generalized reciprocity is Ego's transfer of resources to other individuals without expectations of some kind of equivalent payment in return.

Descriptions of one-way resource flows beg the question of what kind of benefit is received for such a behavior. This is the problem of the evolution of altruism (Batson 1991, Pope 1994, Sober and Wilson 1998). Explaining this problem on the genetic level has been a major focus for biologists and human behavioral ecologists (e.g., Hamilton 1964, 1975; Alexander 1979). Kinship cooperation implies sacrifice (Steadman, p.c.). For example, humans suffer high material costs as part of parental investment and, generally, are glad to pay these costs. Other things being equal, the kinship model implies that actual one-way transfers of resources should be more frequent or intensive as genealogical relatedness increases. In terms of cost-benefit analysis, as costs increase close kin should be favored in food transfer (Betzig and Turke 1986). Evolutionarily, benefits would accrue indirectly through the greater reproductive success of offspring or co-descendants. In large-scale societies, however, motivations for kinship cooperation do not necessarily imply inclusive fitness benefits, as environments of development vary with those in evolutionary history.

My survey research in Ust Avam showed that the Dolgan and Nganasan give meat and fish first and foremost to relatives (Table 1, Appendix). In this community, where the density of genealogical links is relatively high-there are only 8 unrelated individuals in this community of 673 people (Ziker 1998a)-distribution of meat and fish to relatives could include most community households. The amounts given and the character of these gifts needs further study. Many anthropologists view kinship as the driving force for diverse social organizational forms, institutions, and other traditions, from marriage and residence rules, food sharing, and garden labor exchange (Chagnon 1979, Hill and Kaplan 1993, Hames 1987) to modern banking (Robertson 1991) and institutional childcare (ibid.). Conversely, others (e.g., Schneider 1984) have attempted to repudiate the importance of kinship concept altogether, proclaiming it a suspect categorical holdover from "Western" culture. If kinship is really a metaphor used to manipulate food distribution in Ust Avam, one would expect distribution to "kin" of flesh foods to look more like scrounging or tolerated theft than provisioning.

Analysis of 41 cooperative hunting excursions I observed in the Avam tundra between 1993 and 1997 shows that real genealogical relatedness is present both in the organization of hunting parties and in the distribution of foods obtained. Twenty-nine out of 41 hunts had participants that were consanguineal relatives or were members of households that had consanguineal relatives (Table 2, Appendix). The average genealogical relatedness of each pair of hunters in the 41 cooperative hunts was 0.22 (Wright's inbreeding coefficient calculated with KINDEMCOM (Chagnon and Bryant 1984)). Genealogical relatedness between each pair of individuals in each hunter's household was also high (r = 0.17, average for the 41 cooperative hunts). During the previous research, I recorded the distribution of food obtained on these cooperative hunts in terms of "home" or "market." With use for the "home," hunters returning to the settlement from a hunting trip generally bestowed the meat and fish to their elderly mother and father or wife. The parent's, or wife's, responsibility was to redistribute it to children and relatives in other households and other people. For the proposed research, I intend to record individual ID numbers and amounts distributed in primary and secondary transfers in order to generate data relevant to the altruistic-transfer model.

In one of 41 cooperative hunts, meat was being prepared for transfer to the government hunting enterprise. Subsistence hunting and fishing comprises a significant proportion of bush-oriented activity in the Avam tundra. The proposed research will continue to keep track of food being obtained for sale, considering the social relationships of the hunters and the economic and ecological factors related to the hunt.