Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 10:10:07 -0600 Subject: Why Men Hunt Re: Why Men Hunt This question is part of an attempt to get right inside the "original division of labor" and understand it in an, evolutionary way, from an individual's point of view. ["Evolutionary" requires/implies self-interested individuals, in my view and that of this TREE paper.] In several well-observed foraging populations, men who don't hunt have been shown to eat just as well as those who do, because meat, especially from large kills, is equally available to all. This type of situation raises "free rider" problems. If one can enjoy all the benefits without paying any cost, then why bother? I know this view is considered controversial by some, but I believe it is the only one that is seriously supported by evolutionary theory. I do not accept that "the basic unit of production" is "the group". I need to hear some more explanation in order to know what exactly that means. Including - what is "the group" ? Why do "we have to start with the group" ? A more specific question is why do men hunt _big_ game, when they could get just as much meat per hour, on a more regular schedule, by hunting small game? This has been shown to be exactly what is happening in at least one case I know. Hawkes' answer is that the social rewards for the provider of a big bonanza outweigh those for the steady single family provider, in certain circumstances. [Not all foragers do this.] This is because the big feast goes to many people, while bringing home rabbits only for a nuclear family may actually feed the kids better, but foregoes the chance of a bigger social reward to the hunter. Adam, the idea that this behavior gets men social rewards is exactly part of my argument! However, it is not the homogenous, abstract "group" that rewards one, it is various individuals that may be more likely to treat your kids well, share her gathered berries with you, take your side in a fight, want you to father her children, think you're really cool, listen more to you in any discussion, stay away >from one's wife, etc. Not everybody has to treat you better to give you a material/reproductive advantage, just enough people have to, in order to give a net advantage for your extra efforts. >From this individual, evolutionary point of view, each one may prefer to hang with a good hunter, or better yet, a few good hunters, not because it benefits "the group", but because it benefits each one. Also, part of the question of why men hunt is why don't women hunt more? esp. hunt big game, that is. Perhaps because they do not have as much to gain from the same kind of social attention that men do. They transfer gathered food mostly with very close female relatives and their kids, aside from what the husband scoops up. It is the cooperation between related women in providing everyday food and care for children that [under certain circumstances] is most likely to be individually adaptive for each of them. [Still plenty of room for conflict of interest between all these 'cooperators' at the same time.] BTW, foragers have _more_ opportunity than most people to easily just get up and leave a group any time, without losing any crops or property, and they frequently do so. Usually, it is to go join another group, because each one has friends and relatives in several places. This kind of fission / fusion of social groups is very common. So, if there was ever a "voluntary association of individuals" . . . foragers may be it. [And maybe some mailing lists.] I think we might be agreeing again, in a way! Lisa >>> Adam Rose <adam-AT-pmel.com> 4/9/96, 05:36am >>> ... it is not starting with what I see to be the basic unit of production, the group, and working to the individual, but the other way round. [snip] Surely, for hunter gathers, we have to start with the group ? [snip] I would hazard a guess that without hunting, the basic diet can stop the group starving, but in the long term, it would lead to unacceptably high levels of disease and malnutrition. LR: Unacceptable to whom? [snip] Any status individual men got from this flows from this function within the group. [snip] --- from list marxism2-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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