Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling

Daniel Smith,Ruth Mace,Abigail E Page,James Thompson,Leonora Astete,Katie Major,Marilyn Ngales,Mark Dyble,Philip Schlaepfer,Nikhil Chaudhary,Gul Deniz Salali,Lucio Vinicius,Andrea Bamberg Migliano

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.

Highlights

Storytelling is associated with camp-level cooperation. Confirming this expectation, we found that camps with a greater proportion of skilled storytellers were associated with increased levels of cooperation
All models contain camp size as a control variable. 95% confidence intervals are displayed in brackets. ̇P
The results show that skilled storytellers had an additional 0.53 living offspring compared to non-skilled storytellers (b = 0.53, 95% CI: [0.10; 0.96], n = 324, p = 0.016), indicating that storytelling skill is associated with increased fitness (Fig. 2)

Summary

Introduction

Hunter-gatherer societies have strong oral storytelling traditions dictating social behaviour regarding marriage, interactions with in-laws, food sharing, hunting norms and taboos[25,26,27] These stories appear to coordinate group behaviour and facilitate cooperation by providing individuals with social information about the norms, rules and expectations in a given society[15, 28, 29]. We show that: (i) Agta stories convey messages of cooperation, sex equality and social egalitarianism; (ii) stories from other hunter-gatherer societies appear designed to coordinate social behaviour and promote cooperation; (iii) individuals from camps with a greater proportion of skilled storytellers are more cooperative; (iv) skilled storytellers are preferred social partners. They could race each other again, pig on land and seacow in the sea The monkey and his other animal friends would like to camp close to the river. All the ants welcomed her and said, ʻAnt with wings, you are our queen’

Methods

Results

Conclusion