Cooperation and competition in social anthropology
Molina, José Luis (Molina González)
(Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural)
Lubbers, Miranda J.. (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural)
Valenzuela García, Hugo (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural)
Gómez Mestres, Sílvia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural)
Data: |
2017 |
Resum: |
The emergence of cooperation in human societies has received ample academic attention from different disciplines, and is usually considered as an adaptive response to competition over scarce resources. In this article, the authors review the specific contribution that social anthropology has made to this field of research. They propose that social anthropology has contributed to this field through the description of systems that have regulated both cooperation and competition in traditional societies: (1) hunter-gatherer societies, where generalized reciprocity dominates; (2) prestige economies, which includes the exchange of valuables in specific spheres, primitive money, agonistic institutions in tribes; and last, (3) 'moral economies' in peasant communities, where cooperation and competition coexist but never at the cost of putting at risk the reproduction of the community itself or of some of its members. The three systems share the basic mechanism of reciprocity that allows for the maintenance of equality, as well as the very language for regulating competition in unequal prestige or moral economies. This pervasive presence of reciprocity as a moral norm would reveal its basic role in human evolution, and, likely, its co-evolution with ritual forms of social exchange. |
Drets: |
Tots els drets reservats. |
Llengua: |
Anglès |
Document: |
Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada |
Matèria: |
Cooperation ;
Competition ;
Social anthropology |
Publicat a: |
Anthropology today, Vol. 33, Núm. 1 (2017) , p. 11-14, ISSN 1467-8322 |
DOI: 10.1111/1467-8322.12323
El registre apareix a les col·leccions:
Documents de recerca >
Documents dels grups de recerca de la UAB >
Centres i grups de recerca (producció científica) >
Ciències socials i jurídiques >
Grup de Recerca en Antropologia Fonamental i Orientada (GRAFO) Articles >
Articles de recercaArticles >
Articles publicats
Registre creat el 2016-06-27, darrera modificació el 2024-02-14