What Makes Humans Economically Distinctive? A Three-Species Evolutionary Comparison and Historical Analysis
Abstract
The fundamental problem, of what makes humans economically distinctive, is addressed here by using a highly focused cross-species analysis to examine the evolution of property relations. Chimpanzees and bonobos are compared with mobile human foragers, and it is argued that our egalitarian political practices, in conjunction with variance-reduction practices we applied prehistorically to large-game meat consumption, led to a critical evolutionary transformation. The transition began with private property at the ancestral level, but ended with humans having not only private property, but communal property. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Journal of Bioeconomics.
Volume (Year): 6 (2004)
Issue (Month): 2 (May)
Pages: 109-135
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Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=103315
Related research
Keywords: bonobos; chimpanzees; communal property; egalitarianism; hunter–gatherers; private property; social control; social evolution; variance reduction;References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, 2000.
"The Evolution of Strong Reciprocity,"
UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers
2000-05, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
- Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, 1998. "The Evolution of Strong Reciprocity," Research in Economics 98-08-073e, Santa Fe Institute.
- Samuel Bowles & Astrid Hopfensitz, 2000. "The Co-evolution of Individual Behaviors and Social Institutions," Working Papers 00-12-073, Santa Fe Institute.
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Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Janet Landa & Michael Ghiselin, 2005. "The Economics and Bioeconomics of Classification: Introduction," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 215-220, December.
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