. Modern hunters have an unique social structure. According to UCL researchers, residential decision-making in the UK is sex-equality. Men and women are equal. People from all over the world sent money and other support to Nepal after the April earthquake that devastated it. Our species is one of the most cooperative on Earth. Scientists aren’t sure how this happened. Maybe it was because of gender equality. When men and women are given equal access to who they associate with, our social networks expand. Anthropologists used to think that social networking was a function of our association with family members. Family members moved in with their grandparents and cousins, often living near each other. However, a 2011 analysis of 32 hunter-gatherer villages found that the majority of people who live together in large groups are not related genetically. The Filipino hunter-gatherer couples may share equal rights in deciding where they live. Image: Science. There’s a very low degree of family ties in the hunter-gatherer band. Many of these people live together with very few relatives. It is not common for modern human beings to be surrounded by close family members to care for their children. This new study was funded by The Leverhulme Trust. It was published in Science. Mark Dyble from UCL Anthropology and his colleagues showed for the first-time the link between sex equality and residential decision making and group composition. They lived with hunter-gatherers from both the Philippines and Congo as part of the Hunter-Gatherer Resilience Project at UCL Anthropology. Interviews with hundreds of hunters-gatherers were conducted and genealogical information was collected on inter-camp mobility, kinship relationships, residence patterns, and other factors. The authors were able to see how people lived in the communities they visited. There were no relatives living in small towns. Despite living in smaller communities, hunter-gatherers found that they lived with many people with whom they had never been related. Researchers created a computer simulation of the camp selection process. The model showed people living in an empty camp with close family members, including their parents, children and siblings. Camp relatedness is high when only one sex influences this process. This happens most often in male-dominated pastoral and horticultural societies. When both women and men have influence on the process, however, group relatedness can be much lower. This is the case in hunter-gatherer communities, where couples often move to camp where their husbands are close to relatives, and to camps where their wives are close to the family. All want the same thing Mr. Dyble stated: “While other researchers have pointed out the low level of hunter-gatherer families’ relatedness, our research offers an explanation for why this phenomenon emerges.” He added, “It does not mean that people aren’t interested in sharing their lives with kin. Instead, all people seek out kinship and no one ends up with too many. Humans have unique social organisation patterns that have allowed them to evolve. The researchers believe that hunter-gatherer communities are increasingly under pressure from outside forces. However, these societies offer modern examples of the human lifestyles, social organization, and culture that were common in the past. This provides fundamental insight into the human evolutionary history. UCL Anthropology senior author Dr Andrea Migliano said that “sex equality” suggests an evolutionary scenario in which unique traits like cooperation and collaboration with non-related people could have evolved. How can we find out if modern hunters behave as our ancestors? Is today’s hunter/gatherer like their ancestors or are they different? Science Latest News writer Michael Balter says that experts warn that the reason for human cooperation is not gender equality. Kim Hill from Arizona State University Tempe is quoted by Mr. Balster as saying that the paper was a useful and interesting exercise. However, I am hesitant to accept their [only] model. This is partly due to the fact that many modern hunters-gatherers have had to change their social structures since their encounter with civilisation. Polly Wiessner is an Anthropologist at University of Utah, Salt Lake City. She has researched many hunter/gatherer groups across Africa. Citation: “Sex equality could explain the unique social structure of hunters-gatherer band,” M. Dyble. B. Migliano, G. D. Salali, N. Chaudhary, A. Page, D. Smith and R. Mace. J. Thompson, L. Vinicius. Science 15 May 2015: 348 (6236), 796-798. DOI: 10. 1126/science.aaa5139.
