title: Human behavior. Sex equality can explain the unique social structure of hunter-gatherer bands.
abstract: The social organization of mobile hunter-gatherers has several derived features, including low within-camp relatedness and fluid meta-groups. Although these features have been proposed to have provided the selective context for the evolution of human hypercooperation and cumulative culture, how such a distinctive social system may have emerged remains unclear. We present an agent-based model suggesting that, even if all individuals in a community seek to live with as many kin as possible, within-camp relatedness is reduced if men and women have equal influence in selecting camp members. Our model closely approximates observed patterns of co-residence among Agta and Mbendjele BaYaka hunter-gatherers. Our results suggest that pair-bonding and increased sex egalitarianism in human evolutionary history may have had a transformative effect on human social organization.
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK. mark.dyble.12@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dyble
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Salali
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chaudhary
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Page
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vinicius
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mace
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL) Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Migliano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012723:Sex; D060756:Social Networking