Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling
Daniel Smith, Philip Schlaepfer, Katie Major, Mark Dyble, Abigail E. Page, James Thompson, Nikhil Chaudhary, Gul Deniz Salali, Ruth Mace, Leonora Astete, Marilyn Ngales, Lucio Vinicius & Andrea Bamberg MiglianoNature Communications 8, Article number: 1853 (2017)
doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02036-8
Abstract
Storytelling
is a human universal. From gathering around the camp-fire telling tales
of ancestors to watching the latest television box-set, humans are
inveterate producers and consumers of stories. Despite its ubiquity,
little attention has been given to understanding the function and
evolution of storytelling. Here we explore the impact of storytelling on
hunter-gatherer cooperative behaviour and the individual-level fitness
benefits to being a skilled storyteller. Stories told by the Agta, a
Filipino hunter-gatherer population, convey messages relevant to
coordinating behaviour in a foraging ecology, such as cooperation, sex
equality and egalitarianism. These themes are present in narratives from
other foraging societies. We also show that the presence of good
storytellers is associated with increased cooperation. In return,
skilled storytellers are preferred social partners and have greater
reproductive success, providing a pathway by which group-beneficial
behaviours, such as storytelling, can evolve via individual-level
selection. We conclude that one of the adaptive functions of
storytelling among hunter gatherers may be to organise cooperation.
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