Food Sharing (food + sharing)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Early hominid hunting and scavenging: A zooarcheological review

EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 6 2003
Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
Abstract Before the early 1980s, the prevailing orthodoxy in paleoanthropology considered Early Stone Age archeological sites in East Africa to represent a primitive form of hominid campsites. The faunal evidence preserved in these sites was viewed as the refuse of carcass meals provided by hominid males in a social system presumptively characterized by sexual division of labor. This interpretation of early hominid life ways, commonly known as the "Home Base" or "Food Sharing" model, was developed most fully by Glynn Isaac.1,4 As Bunn and Stanford5 emphasized, this model was greatly influenced by a paradigm that coalesced between 1966 and 1968, referred to as "Man the Hunter."6 [source]


Tolerant food sharing and reciprocity is precluded by despotism among bonobos but not chimpanzees

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
Adrian V. Jaeggi
Abstract Tolerant food sharing among human foragers can largely be explained by reciprocity. In contrast, food sharing among chimpanzees and bonobos may not always reflect reciprocity, which could be explained by different dominance styles: in egalitarian societies reciprocity is expressed freely, while in more despotic groups dominants may hinder reciprocity. We tested the degree of reciprocity and the influence of dominance on food sharing among chimpanzees and bonobos in two captive groups. First, we found that chimpanzees shared more frequently, more tolerantly, and more actively than bonobos. Second, among chimpanzees, food received was the best predictor of food shared, indicating reciprocal exchange, whereas among bonobos transfers were mostly unidirectional. Third, chimpanzees had a shallower and less linear dominance hierarchy, indicating that they were less despotic than bonobos. This suggests that the tolerant and reciprocal sharing found in chimpanzees, but not bonobos, was made possible by the absence of despotism. To investigate this further, we tested the relationship between despotism and reciprocity in grooming using data from an additional five groups and five different study periods on the main groups. The results showed that i) all chimpanzee groups were less despotic and groomed more reciprocally than bonobo groups, and ii) there was a general negative correlation between despotism and grooming reciprocity across species. This indicates that an egalitarian hierarchy may be more common in chimpanzees, at least in captivity, thus fostering reciprocal exchange. We conclude that a shallow dominance hierarchy was a necessary precondition for the evolution of human-like reciprocal food sharing. Am J Phys Anthropol 143:41,51, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Neighbor effects in marmosets: social contagion of agonism and affiliation in captive Callithrix jacchus

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 6 2010
Claire F.I. Watson
Abstract Researchers have demonstrated the neighbor effect for affiliative and agonistic neighbor vocalizations in captive chimpanzees. We extend the investigation of the neighbor effect to New World monkeys, Callithrix jacchus. We collected data on vocalizations and behaviors of 31 focal individuals and concurrent neighbor vocalization within three behavioral categories: intragroup and intergroup aggression and intragroup affiliation. We investigated whether there was an influence of neighbor vocalizations on focal behavior within the same behavioral category. For data analysis we used approximate randomization of paired-sample t -tests. We found that marmosets performed intergroup aggressive behavior (bristle, anogenital present for neighbor loud shrill only) for significantly longer, and emitted significantly more intergroup agonistic vocalizations (twitter, loud shrill), at a high frequency of intergroup agonistic neighbor vocalizations (twitter, loud shrill) than at low. The marmosets were also significantly more likely to engage in bristle behavior immediately after hearing a neighbor intergroup aggressive call (twitter, loud shrill) than directly beforehand. High neighbor intragroup agonistic calls (chatter) were associated with significantly longer spent in related behavior (composite of: attack, chase, steal food). Affiliative behaviors (share food, grooming invite) were engaged in by marmosets for significantly longer at higher frequencies of affiliative neighbor chirp calls than at low. Marmosets were also significantly more likely to perform food sharing and active affiliative contact immediately after rather than before hearing a neighbor chirp call. Our findings suggest that neighbor vocalizations influence marmoset behavior through social contagion and indicate that the neighbor effect for affiliation and aggression generalizes to the marmoset. Am. J. Primatol. 72:549,558, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Begging for information: mother,offspring food sharing among wild Bornean orangutans

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 6 2008
Adrian V. Jaeggi
Abstract Transfer of solid food from mothers or other adults to dependent offspring is commonly observed in various primate species and both nutritional and informational benefits have been proposed to explain the function of such food sharing. Predictions from these hypotheses are tested using observational data on wild orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) at Tuanan, Central Borneo, Indonesia. In 1,145,hr of focal observation and 458 recorded food interactions between four pairs of females with offspring it was found that virtually all transfers were initiated by the offspring and that younger infants solicited food more often and did so for a greater variety of items than older offspring. All offspring primarily solicited food that was difficult to process, i.e., inaccessible to them. Furthermore, the amount of food solicitation was negatively correlated with ecological competence. Hence food sharing seemed to be related to an offspring's skill level, as suggested by the informational hypothesis. In contrast, offspring did not solicit high-quality items more than low-quality items and food sharing did not peak around the age of weaning, as predicted by the nutritional hypothesis. Mothers were usually passively tolerant, allowing offspring to take food but hardly ever provisioned. Parent,offspring conflict concerning food sharing was only observed well after weaning. Thus, by taking food directly from the mother, young orangutans were able to obtain information about the affordances and nutritional value of food items that were otherwise out of their reach and could familiarize themselves with the mother's diet. In species such as orangutans or other apes, characterized by a broad diet that requires extractive foraging, informational food transfer may be vital for an immature to acquire complex feeding skills and adult diet. Am. J. Primatol. 70:533,541, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Food transfers to young and mates in wild owl monkeys (Aotus azarai)

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2008
Christy Kaitlyn Wolovich
Abstract Accounts of food sharing within natural populations of mammals have focused on transfers to offspring or transfers of food items that are difficult to obtain (such as meat). Five groups of socially monogamous owl monkeys (Aotus azarai azarai) in Formosa, Argentina were observed during 107,hr to determine the pattern of food sharing under natural conditions. There were a total of 42 social interactions involving food with food being transferred on eight occasions. Adult males transferred food to young more often than did adult females. All types of food that were readily obtained and eaten by all age/sex classes were transferred to young. Adult females also transferred food to their mates. This type of food sharing is very rare among animals and may have social benefits specific to monogamous mammals with paternal care. Am. J. Primatol. 70:211,221, 2008. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]