TY - JOUR
T1 - The benefits of costly signaling
T2 - Meriam turtle hunters
AU - Smith, Eric Alden
AU - Bliege Bird, Rebecca
AU - Bird, Douglas W.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Meriam community, including Chairman Ron Day, our Meriam families (particularly the Passis), and the hunters who shared information or invited us on hunts. We also acknowledge the invaluable field assistance of Andrew Passi, Ron ‘‘Sonny’’ Passi, Edna Kabere, Del Passi, and Craig Hadley. Geoff Kushnick and Matthew Wimmer diligently aided in the statistical analyses, and M. Wimmer devised and conducted the maximum likelihood analysis of hunter reproductive success. For helpful discussions and comments on the analyses, we thank Carl Bergstrom, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Sam Bowles, Herb Gintis, Don Grayson, Kristen Hawkes, Hillard Kaplan, David Westneat, Polly Wiessner, and an anonymous reviewer. Research in 1997–1998 was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) grant SBR-9616096 to R.B.B. and E.A.S. and NSF grant SBR-9616887 to D.W.B. and E.A.S.; research in 1994–1995 was supported by grants to R.B.B. and D.W.B. from the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies, the
Funding Information:
L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, an NSF predoctoral fellowship to R.B.B., and an NSF dissertation improvement grant to D.W.B.
PY - 2003/1
Y1 - 2003/1
N2 - Hunting, particularly when it involves large game that is extensively shared, has been suggested to serve as a form of costly signaling by hunters, serving to attract mates and allies or to deter competitors. Empirical evidence presented elsewhere on turtle hunting practiced by Meriam people of Torres Strait, Australia, supports several key predictions of the costly signaling account. Here we present evidence from the same study bearing on another key prediction, that signalers (hunters) gain social and reproductive benefits. Specifically, we find that successful hunters gain social recognition, have an earlier onset of reproduction, achieve higher age-specific reproductive success, and gain higher quality mates, who also achieve above-average reproductive success. Meriam hunters also average more mates (women who bear their offspring) and more co-resident sexual partners than other men, and these partners (but not mates) are significantly younger. Several lines of evidence thus support the idea that hunting is a form of costly signaling in this population. Alternative hypotheses involving reciprocity (from grateful recipients of meat) and direct offspring provisioning by hunters are not consistent with available evidence, but in the absence of experimental manipulation we cannot rule out a role for phenotypic correlation.
AB - Hunting, particularly when it involves large game that is extensively shared, has been suggested to serve as a form of costly signaling by hunters, serving to attract mates and allies or to deter competitors. Empirical evidence presented elsewhere on turtle hunting practiced by Meriam people of Torres Strait, Australia, supports several key predictions of the costly signaling account. Here we present evidence from the same study bearing on another key prediction, that signalers (hunters) gain social and reproductive benefits. Specifically, we find that successful hunters gain social recognition, have an earlier onset of reproduction, achieve higher age-specific reproductive success, and gain higher quality mates, who also achieve above-average reproductive success. Meriam hunters also average more mates (women who bear their offspring) and more co-resident sexual partners than other men, and these partners (but not mates) are significantly younger. Several lines of evidence thus support the idea that hunting is a form of costly signaling in this population. Alternative hypotheses involving reciprocity (from grateful recipients of meat) and direct offspring provisioning by hunters are not consistent with available evidence, but in the absence of experimental manipulation we cannot rule out a role for phenotypic correlation.
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U2 - 10.1093/beheco/14.1.116
DO - 10.1093/beheco/14.1.116
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0037284165
SN - 1045-2249
VL - 14
SP - 116
EP - 126
JO - Behavioral Ecology
JF - Behavioral Ecology
IS - 1
ER -