Male social status and its predictors among Garisakang forager-horticulturalists of lowland Papua New Guinea

Konečná, Martina; Urlacher, Samuel S.

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.05.005

Cited by 16 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Generosity has also been linked to prestige (prediction (iii) in Table 1) in experiments (e.g., Flynn et al 2006;Halevy et al 2012;Hardy and Van Vugt, 2006;Willer, 2009) and ethnographic observations (e.g., Konečná and Urlacher, 2017;Price, 2003;Radcliffe-Brown, 1964). Because prestigious individuals tend to be both competent and generous (Cheng and Tracy, 2014;Cheng et al 2010;Henrich, 2016), at least towards members of their ingroup, generosity can be used as a proxy for competence.…”

Section: Prestige Cuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prestige-biased social learning: current evidence and outstanding questions

2019

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Cultural evolution theory posits that a major factor in human ecological success is our high-fidelity and selective social learning, which permits the accumulation of adaptive knowledge and skills over successive generations. One way to acquire adaptive social information is by preferentially copying competent individuals within a valuable domain (success bias). However, competence within a domain is often difficult or impossible to directly assess. Almost 20 years ago, Henrich and Gil-White (H&GW) suggested that people use indirect cues of success (e.g., differential levels of attention paid to models by other social learners) as adaptive shortcuts to select models from whom to learn. They called this use of indirect markers of success prestige bias. In this review, we re-visit H&GW's proposal, examining the evidence amassed since for the adaptiveness and use of prestige bias in humans. First, we briefly outline H&GW's theory. Second, we analyse whether prestige is associated with competence within valuable domains, which is a crucial assumption underlying the adaptiveness of prestige bias. Third, we discuss prestige cues that people use to infer success (e.g., the amount of voluntary deference and attention received by models). Fourth, we examine the evidence for and against the use of prestige bias in human adults and children. Finally, we point out limitations in the current literature and present new avenues for research on prestige bias.

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Section: Prestige Cuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prestige-biased social learning: current evidence and outstanding questions

2019

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“…Wanang ( figure 1 ) is the only settlement within 10 000 ha of unlogged lowland rainforest in the Ramu River floodplains. 27 In 2016, it consisted of 89 females and 100 males: <10 years, 66 individuals; 10–19 years, 51; 20–30 years, 32; 31–40 years, 20; 41–50 years, 6;≥51 years, 17 (data provided by MK), and it also hosts a school for the wider area. Its nine clans subsist primarily through horticulture and foraging, living in traditional structures.…”

Section: Methods and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Health service needs and perspectives of remote forest communities in Papua New Guinea: study protocol for combined clinical and rapid anthropological assessments with parallel treatment of urgent cases

et al. 2020

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IntroductionOur project follows community requests for health service incorporation into conservation collaborations in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea (PNG). This protocol is for health needs assessments, our first step in coplanning medical provision in communities with no existing health data.Methods and analysisThe study includes clinical assessments and rapid anthropological assessment procedures (RAP) exploring the health needs and perspectives of partner communities in two areas, conducted over 6 weeks fieldwork. First, in Wanang village (population c.200), which is set in lowland rainforest. Second, in six communities (population c.3000) along an altitudinal transect up the highest mountain in PNG, Mount Wilhelm. Individual primary care assessments incorporate physical examinations and questioning (providing qualitative and quantitative data) while RAP includes focus groups, interviews and field observations (providing qualitative data). Given absence of in-community primary care, treatments are offered alongside research activity but will not form part of the study. Data are collected by a research fellow, primary care clinician and two PNG research technicians. After quantitative and qualitative analyses, we will report: ethnoclassifications of disease, causes, symptoms and perceived appropriate treatment; community rankings of disease importance and service needs; attitudes regarding health service provision; disease burdens and associations with altitudinal-related variables and cultural practices. To aid wider use study tools are in online supplemental file, and paper and ODK versions are available free from the corresponding author.Ethics and disseminationChallenges include supporting informed consent in communities with low literacy and diverse cultures, moral duties to provide treatment alongside research in medically underserved areas while minimising risks of therapeutic misconception and inappropriate inducement, and PNG research capacity building. Brighton and Sussex Medical School (UK), PNG Institute of Medical Research and PNG Medical Research Advisory Committee have approved the study. Dissemination will be via journals, village meetings and plain language summaries.

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“…Associations between wealth and psychosocial outcomes were generally weaker and, importantly, none of the wealth-health associations were altered when including psychosocial measures, including cortisol levels, as covariates (even though cortisol was itself associated with some health outcomes). In contrast, a study of four Tsimane communities found that influential men with greater social support had lower cortisol (von Rueden et al, 2014), and higher cash income associated with higher cortisol in two traditional societies (Konečná and Urlacher, 2017;von Rueden et al, 2014). In another study of the Tsimane, higher incomes predicted lower BMIs, unless individuals had relatively more social support (Brabec et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Among the Tsimane, it corresponds to 20 years (systolic) or 40 years (diastolic) of age-related increases in blood pressure (Gurven et al, 2012). As novel, obesogenic foods enter the Tsimane diet (Kraft et al, 2018), market integration increases stress (Konečná and Urlacher, 2017;von Rueden et al, 2014), and protective lifestyle factors like physical activity and helminth infections are changing (Gurven et al, 2013(Gurven et al, , 2016, people in unequal communities, especially the poor (see Figure S1), may be at greater risk of chronic disease. In this context, it is also worth noting that while the range of our village-level Gini values (0.15-0.43) was similar to that of income inequality among high-income countries (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among Dominican farmers, socio-economic indicators were unrelated to cortisol levels whereas local influence was associated with lower cortisol (Decker, 2000). Among egalitarian Garisakang horticulturalists in Papua New Guinea, higher income coming from greater market exposure was associated with higher cortisol, whereas other SES measures as well as status based on locally relevant measures were not (Konečná and Urlacher, 2017). Among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists in Bolivia, the population studied here, traditional forms of status generally supported a status-health gradient, but studies on income or wealth showed mixed results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relative wealth and inequality associate with health in a small-scale subsistence society

Jaeggi

Blackwell

Rueden

et al. 2020

Preprint

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In high-income countries, relative wealth and inequality affect health by causing psychosocial stress. We test this hypothesis in a small-scale subsistence society, the Tsimane. We associated relative household wealth (n=1003) and community-level wealth inequality (n=35, Gini = 0.15 – 0.43) with a range of psychosocial and health outcomes (depressive symptoms [n=663], social conflicts [n=393], non-social problems [n=390], social support [n=392], cortisol [n=828], BMI [n=9378], blood pressure [n=1614]), self-rated health [n=809], morbidities [n=3140]) controlling for absolute wealth, age, sex, community size, distance to town and relevant random effects. Relative wealth and inequality were associated with self-rated health and morbidity, especially respiratory disease, the leading cause of mortality in the Tsimane. Inequality was also associated with higher blood pressure. However, psychosocial stress did not mediate these associations, suggesting other mechanisms. These findings are consistent with socio-economic hierarchies affecting some health outcomes in any society, while others might be exacerbated in high-income countries.

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Male social status and its predictors among Garisakang forager-horticulturalists of lowland Papua New Guinea

Cited by 16 publications

References 51 publications

Prestige-biased social learning: current evidence and outstanding questions

Prestige-biased social learning: current evidence and outstanding questions

Health service needs and perspectives of remote forest communities in Papua New Guinea: study protocol for combined clinical and rapid anthropological assessments with parallel treatment of urgent cases

Relative wealth and inequality associate with health in a small-scale subsistence society

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