Dr. Kim Hill, Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University

This talk will be presented in person, as well as via Zoom.

Dr. Hill will be presenting the Frank Marlowe Memorial Lecture for this year.

Human Uniqueness and the flow of goods and services in Samal “sea nomads” of the Philippines

Abstract:  Humans are an extreme outlier species by many objective measures. How did we get to be so different from the other 9 million eukaryotic species on the planet?  Decades of research suggests that even in the most traditional human societies a combination of interacting factors makes us unique:  culture, cooperation, cognition, communication.  This also lead to the co-evolution of a very unique life history, that required economic interdependence in order to be successful.  In this talk I present new research from Sama “sea nomads” that examines transfers of material goods and services between households.  The pattern shows again the amazing interdependence of settlement households in order to successfully replicate.  We find that reciprocity seems to be the single most important driver of cooperation, although reciprocity partners are preferentially close kin.  Age differences structure many types of helping that appear to be examples of cooperative helping to successfully raise multiple dependent juveniles.

Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=SytQNTNPSWdwaDNlTm05d2srdXNHUT09

Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236

Passcode: BEC