Biocomplexity Research: Emergence of Cooperation from Human-Environmental Interactions

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A key question in the social and evolutionary sciences is the explanation of cooperation among human groups. Current models explain cooperation either as a result of fitness benefits to kin or as a consequence of reciprocal altruism among individuals in small groups. Both explanations are limited to small groups that are united by kinship ties' or reciprocal exchanges. The purpose of this Biocomplexity research project is to improve general understandings of the role of the environment in the formation and dissolution of large-scale cooperative groups. To accomplish this goal, an adaptive-agent simulation model will be created that can predict variation in cooperation as a consequence of processes that occur over historical time. Among the changes to be examined are changes in population density, kinship relationships, and ecological feedback. The model will also predict statistical patterns of biological kinship relationships among individuals and conflicts between social groups. These patterns will be tested against observed data on conflict and cooperation among Balinese farming communities.This project builds on prior NSF-funded research that showed how stable cooperative networks encompassing tens of thousands of farmers in Balinese watersheds can be explained through a model of self-organization through which ecological feedback rewarded cooperation with high harvest yields and reduced variance in yields. In computer simulations, agents coalesced into cooperative groups as a consequence of ecological feedback, and these groups often coalesced into higher-level agents. Calculated optimal structural patterns of cooperation bear a very close resemblance to observed patterns among the subaks. But despite the ecological rewards for cooperation, it frequently breaks down. Because the existing ecological model always predicts that cooperation will be rewarded, it cannot account for such failures to cooperate. Detailed observations of 15 villages over the past four years suggest that cultural rules of kinship and patterns of demographic change strongly influence both the emergence and dissolution of cooperative bonds among farmers. The proposed adaptive-agent simulation model will enable simulation of these historical processes. The model will predict specific patterns of demography, kinship relationships, and levels of cooperation for particular villages. These predictions will be tested against observed data. The model will be constructed and tested using data from Bali, but it will be designed to facilitate a search for similar processes and dynamics in other societies.