Doctoral Dissertation Research: Shifting co-residence, sharing, and contact networks in a transitioning hunter-gatherer society

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The size and composition of human groups varies widely between societies, from the small bands of hunter-gatherers to the massive social networks of modern mega-cities. To understand the origins of this extreme variation, this doctoral dissertation project will study a small-scale society that is currently shifting from a life of nomadic hunting and gathering to one focused on sedentary agriculture. The co-PI will use innovative sensor technology to track the movements of individuals in order to reconstruct social networks and understand how those networks are related to demographics, food sharing, and residence patterns. This study is expected to shed light on the historical importance of living with close relatives and how the rise of agriculture has influenced human social interactions, especially the exchange of resources and information. Social networks also have major implications for health and the spread of disease, and this research aims to identify how the structure of social networks might mitigate disease susceptibility. This project will also provide student research and training opportunities for field and research assistants, and will include science communication and outreach activities at the home institution and the field site. Patterns of co-residence determine which individuals cooperate, compete, or share information and resources. This research will investigate the mechanisms that influence co-residence patterns and inter-individual interactions in a small-scale hunter-gatherer society, the Batek of Malaysia, for whom cooperation is critical for survival. The co-PI will collect detailed demographic, co-residence, and food sharing data in permanent settlements and forest camps, and analyze these data in conjunction with a rich historical dataset collected in the mid-1970s on the same population. In addition, the project will include the use of sensor technology to monitor proximity interactions among individuals and reconstruct social networks. Given the increasing sedentarization of the Batek, coupled with a shift towards male-dominated gender relations, specific predictions include (i) an increase in relatedness among co-residents, (ii) an increase in kin-biased and reciprocal sharing interactions, and (iii) broader but less evenly distributed contact networks. This project builds on a recent synthesis of research on human co-residence patterns, and provides the first empirical test of a new theoretical model proposed to explain these patterns. Findings from this project will provide an important baseline for evaluating the effect of sedentarization on fundamental human interaction patterns and how human social organization mediates the spread of information and disease.