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#685 Kim Sterelny - The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution

The Dissenter

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Direct and Indirect Reciprocation in Human Evolution

In the book you also mentioned direct and indirect reciprocation has becoming increasingly important in human evolution. So, what are these and how did it happen that they became so important? Okay, well, I do something for you with the expectation that you'll do something for me further down the track. And our ancestors and indeed until very recently lived in small communities that were pretty long lived. They knew that they were going to interact with one another on a regular basis. The exchange of favours, the exchange of goods probably has a very deep history. You have this kind of circular flow of resources. It's stable if reputation is reliable in the small group.

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