TY - JOUR
T1 - Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling
AU - Smith, Daniel
AU - Schlaepfer, Philip
AU - Major, Katie
AU - Dyble, Mark
AU - Page, Abigail E.
AU - Thompson, James
AU - Chaudhary, Nikhil
AU - Salali, Gul Deniz
AU - MacE, Ruth
AU - Astete, Leonora
AU - Ngales, Marilyn
AU - Vinicius, Lucio
AU - Migliano, Andrea Bamberg
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s).
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85037100048&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-017-02036-8
DO - 10.1038/s41467-017-02036-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 29208949
AN - SCOPUS:85037100048
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 8
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 1853
ER -