The dynamics of men's cooperation and social status in a small-scale society

摘要

We propose that networks of cooperation and allocation of social status co-emerge in human groups. We substantiate this hypothesis with one of he first longitudinal studies of cooperation in a preindustrial society, spanning 8 years. Using longitudinal social network analysis of cooperation mong men, we find large effects of kinship, reciprocity and transitivity in he nomination of cooperation partners over time. Independent of these effects, we show that (i) higher-status individuals gain more cooperation partners, and (ii) individuals gain status by cooperating with individuals of higher status than themselves. We posit that human hierarchies are more egalitarian relative to other primates species, owing in part to greater interdependence between cooperation and status hierarchy.