Effect of Resource Spatial Correlation and Hunter-Fisher-Gatherer Mobility on Social Cooperation in Tierra del Fuego

Authored by Jorge Caro, Myrian Alvarez, Debora Zurro, Santos Jose Ignacio, Galan Jose Manuel, Maria Pereda, i Godino Ivan Briz

Date Published: 2015

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121888

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: NetLogo

Model Documentation: ODD Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: https://www.comses.net/codebases/4249/releases/1.0.0/

Abstract

This article presents an agent-based model designed to explore the development of cooperation in hunter-fisher-gatherer societies that face a dilemma of sharing an unpredictable resource that is randomly distributed in space. The model is a stylised abstraction of the Yamana society, which inhabited the channels and islands of the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina-Chile). According to ethnographic sources, the Yamana developed cooperative behaviour supported by an indirect reciprocity mechanism: whenever someone found an extraordinary confluence of resources, such as a beached whale, they would use smoke signals to announce their find, bringing people together to share food and exchange different types of social capital. The model provides insight on how the spatial concentration of beachings and agents' movements in the space can influence cooperation. We conclude that the emergence of informal and dynamic communities that operate as a vigilance network preserves cooperation and makes defection very costly.

Tags

models networks Levy flight Snowdrift game Evolutionary games Prisoners-dilemma Flight search patterns Wandering albatrosses Structured populations Foraging patterns