title: Emergence and Evolution of Cooperation Under Resource Pressure.
abstract: We study the influence that resource availability has on cooperation in the context of hunter-gatherer societies. This paper proposes a model based on archaeological and ethnographic research on resource stress episodes, which exposes three different cooperative regimes according to the relationship between resource availability in the environment and population size. The most interesting regime represents moderate survival stress in which individuals coordinate in an evolutionary way to increase the probabilities of survival and reduce the risk of failing to meet the minimum needs for survival. Populations self-organise in an indirect reciprocity system in which the norm that emerges is to share the part of the resource that is not strictly necessary for survival, thereby collectively lowering the chances of starving. Our findings shed further light on the emergence and evolution of cooperation in hunter-gatherer societies.
authors.affiliation: Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC), Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pereda
authors.affiliation: CaSEs - Complexity and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Archaeology and Anthropology-IMF, CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Débora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zurro
authors.affiliation: INSISOC. Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad de Burgos, Edif. "La Milanera", C/Villadiego, s/n.09001, Burgos, Spain.
authors.forename: José I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: CONICET-CADIC. B, Houssay, 200, Ushuaia, 9410, Argentina.|ICSE-UNTDF, Los Ñires, 2382, Ushuaia, 9410, Argentina.|Department of Archaeology, University of York, The King's Manor, Y01 7EP, York, UK.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Briz I Godino
authors.affiliation: CONICET-CADIC. B, Houssay, 200, Ushuaia, 9410, Argentina.
authors.forename: Myrian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Álvarez
authors.affiliation: CaSEs - Complexity and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Archaeology and Anthropology-IMF, CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.|GSADI. Department of Sociology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Caro
authors.affiliation: INSISOC. Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad de Burgos, Edif. "La Milanera", C/Villadiego, s/n.09001, Burgos, Spain.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Galán
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011156:Population Density